How about a SS7 AOpen AX59 Pro?
AGP1x, PCI & ISA slots. Supports all Socket7 cpu's as far as I know and SDR-SDRAM.
Pop in one of these; http://www.ebay.com/itm/280722531642 and you've got one of the best Socket7 systems.

For gaming however, I think you would want to go with at least a Pentium II or III because they have a hugely improved FPU over the socket7 cpu's.

And Late 90s is a very wide area; 1997 was at best a Pentium II 300MHz and 1999 saw the Pentium III at 733MHz.

You can go S7 or SS7; many ways
Intel all the way, TX chipset and a Pentium MMX. TX has SDRAM support.
VIA VPX, usually has at least 1 SDRAM slot, and supports all S7 cpu's.
Ali Aladdin or VIA MVP3, good SS7 chipsets with AGP.
Or Slot 1; or early socket 370.
BX rules. There are some VIA chipsets too. Myself I use a VIA 693 for my jack-of-all-trades system.

Slot 1 is generally cheaper than socket 7 at the current moment.
I would say you get more flexibility with playing the late demanding 1990's game (Unreal, Quake3) with a Slot 1 system compared to a fast Socket 7. If you were to go for the slot 1 route I would recommend a 440BX motherboard like the Asus P3B-F (V1.03 or V1.04). It supports Tualatin processors without the Powerleap adapter (just needs pin mod or pin adapter), jumper free BIOS for easy changes (no turning off the power and open the case to switch jumpers), good AGP and 133mhz (unoffical) support. All this while also having 1-2 ISA slots depending on the board.

These are all good ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Does AGP present a problem in DOS? I know very definitely I'm going ISA on the soundcard.

I don't foresee myself doing too much 3D gaming on this machine. There are source ports for most of the 3D games I might want to play. If I could do 1024x768 x 32bit with good clarity in Windows, while being DOS compatible, I'd be happy. That means I'd only *need* about 4MB of VRAM.

I said Voodoo just because I can get a PCI Voodoo 3 for about $10 and I know it's decent for 2D too.

- John

Voodoo 3 is a good choice. I'd say a BX board and a unlocked Pentium II if DOS is your goal.

Slot1 CPUs are easiest to handle, you just push them into their slot and you're done: no need for thermal paste and dancing with radiators. There are even some fanless Slot1 CPU packages - there are few at Ebay. This really helps with lowering your rig's noise.

AGP video cards pose no problem in DOS.

Thus a Slot1 440BX mobo is recommended. ASUS P2B (3 ISA slots), P2B-F(2 ISA slots), P3B-F(1 or 2 ISA slots) - these are common in retro-builds. Alternatively you can go for Chaintech 6BTM or ABIT BE6-II.

Abit BH6 was a beauty too.

NitroX infinity wrote:

Abit BH6 was a beauty too.

It's hard to go wrong with a retail board from ABit. The configuration options available in the BIOS were second to none back then.

first, OMG I CANT WAIT FOR 3.33 TO COME OUT ON BLU-RAY OMG!

second, What do you want to PLAY on this retro rig? That is how I build all my systems. For example, my current project is a 8086 system with CGA. It is designed for the games that use < 640k of ram. the next step is a hot-rod 386. followed by a voodoo1/pentium 2 setup. And so forth. Nail down EXACTLY what you want to play on the system, then build a rig around it. That is my advice.