About the "PCI VGA" - AGP is just an extension of PCI, so if it can't detect the chip properly (or you don't have the right drivers), it drops to "lowest common denominator" setting of "PCI VGA".

-- Stop reading here if you don't care about the technical aspects of AGP --

For the technical - AGP is a 66 MHz PCI slot, on a dedicated connection to the chipset, separate from the rest of the PCI bus, with "double data rate" (or higher in later versions,) and a few little extras that make it good for video cards.

But at its heart, it is perfectly standard PCI. Some server motherboards that used "workstation" chipsets even used the AGP connection as a separate PCI bus. Two I supported when I was at Intel were the L440GX and C440GX boards. The 440GX chipset was basically a beefed-up 440BX, complete with AGP bus. (The workstation MS440GX board had AGP.) But the server boards used that AGP connection to run 66 MHz PCI slots instead.

The top two PCI slots are run off the AGP bus - and operate at 66 MHz. They are connected via the dedicated AGP bus off the Northbridge.

The next PCI slot down (the extra long one) is a conventional 33 MHz PCI slot, but with the added extension of a custom Intel/Adaptec "ARO" port - special RAID cards would use that extension to add their RAID powers to the onboard (normally non-RAID) SCSI ports.

The next three PCI slots are plain old 33 MHz PCI, on the same PCI bus as the "ARO" PCI slot above them.

The dual-slot-2-Xeon C440GX was similar:

The first generation of AGP was double-data-rate, meaning it sent two 'packets' of data for each clock cycle, which is why it is called "2X". It also made it transfer data at four times the speed of conventional 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI, rather than just 2x. (32-bit, 66 MHz, doubled.)

AGP 4x was quad-data-rate, so four packets of data per clock cycle. And AGP 8x was eight packets per clock cycle.

Hey awesome, didnt expect such an in depth post as a response! Thanks dude. I was a wee lad when I had Windows 98 so this is all stuff I have noooo idea about.

I was running the Windows 98 beta my final year of college...

Anonymous Freak wrote:

Some server motherboards that used "workstation" chipsets even used the AGP connection as a separate PCI bus.

I never knew that, quite clever really as AGP is pretty wasted on a server.

Anonymous Freak wrote:

I was running the Windows 98 beta my final year of college...

Haha, I dont wish to cause any alarm! D:

Also, add a beige Realforce 87U to the build.... Oops, I went overboard. That said, its now my favorite keyboard.

Tips for Win 98 SE install :
Download ALL drivers from ASRock site BEFORE doing anything : LINK
Burn them to CD or DVD, copy to HDD beforehand, use floppy disk if you have to (at least for LAN).

For "VIA 4 in 1", I recommend downloading both the older (4.xx), and the newer (5.xx) versions (sometimes older works better, sometimes newer).

agent_x007 wrote:

Tips for Win 98 SE install : Download ALL drivers from ASRock site BEFORE doing anything : LINK Burn them to CD or DVD, copy to […]
Show full quote

Tips for Win 98 SE install :
Download ALL drivers from ASRock site BEFORE doing anything : LINK
Burn them to CD or DVD, copy to HDD beforehand, use floppy disk if you have to (at least for LAN).

For "VIA 4 in 1", I recommend downloading both the older (4.xx), and the newer (5.xx) versions (sometimes older works better, sometimes newer).

This is a big help, thanks! Ill try it out.

edit: wait this doesnt even has VIA 😵 im a dingus