So, wife and I moved into a new apartment with space enough to dedicate to setting up "superfluous" machines. I pulled out my Win98 rig and plugged it in via VGA to our LG 32LD450 TV for use as a monitor. (This model line has amazing cred as a monitor) All was good until I got into Windows. Major noise on the screen. I tried a couple of different VGA cables but all had the same problem so I had to consign myself to having to give up the GeForce4 MX 4000 I had in the machine. I tried all of the other available cards I had in my bins and the one with the least noticable noise was a Vanta TNT2/M64 (MSI-8808 specifically). I've dropped down a couple of generations in graphics power but at least I have a screen picture that doesn't kill my eyes to look at it.

So, thinking about this, I started to ask myself if the machine as a whole was what I wanted to fulfill the needs I have and via random link chasing I started to look up the release dates for all the parts in the machine. Surprisingly, to my uneducated self, I discovered that the release dates for the main components were within about 6 months or so of each other. All the parts range from about mid '99 to mid '00. So, I find myself with a complementary system.

The specs are:
Asus P3V133
Coppermine P3 933/256k/133fsb/1.7v Slot 1
512mb pc133
MSI-8808 Vanta TNT2/M64 32mb, AGP
Sound Blaster Live! (CT-4760)

These parts are for a dedicated Win98 setup. Some of the games I use it for are Quake II (which ran smoothly at 1024x768x32 with everything maxxed except for AA and T&L which were off), Journeyman 2, MS Combat Flight Sims 1/2...well, I guess nothing TOO taxing so far but we'll see what else I find.

Question 1 is: How far beyond games of early '00 can I expect to play with this setup? What is about the limit of what I'd want to push this machine with?

I'm also thinking that since this video card is the oldest component, maybe a card from a little later, maybe mid 00 to match the p3 would be a better bet. Assuming I can find one that isn't noisy like the others I have. Perhaps a Geforce2 or early Radeon? With this boost of graphics ability, how much would that extend my gaming reach according to the question above?

I have dosbox running beautifully on my latest model iMac so most of the DOS games I can think of are fully covered. I would like to dual boot this system (from a second hard drive) to run the DOS games that don't run well in dosbox. I'm thinking of games like Falcon 3.0, A Final Unity, some of the later SVGA Dos games that just don't run smoothly enough under dobox yet.

I have a Stealth 3d 2000 Pro that I was going to add in as a second vid card for pure dos use. I've been told here that I should get awesome compatibility with that, if not outright speed. I'm thinking of finding a voodoo 2 to tack onto that, maybe one of those single card SLI deals I see here and there. That'll help with adding Glide games to the Windows side as well.

Question 2: What's a good ISA sound card for maximum compatibility for DOS? I was thinking maybe an AWE32 or 64, or should I go for a real SB16? How about music cards? I have 2 free PCI and 3 empty ISA slots to use so I can dedicate all of the ISA to dos sound use.

All advice is appreciated.

**Edit**

Actually, the TNT2 I have should be aswesome for DOS though shouldn't it? Maybe I can skip adding the Stealth and just tack on a voodoo or something and keep the video needs simple?