For strictly 2D, Matrox hands down. Cards from Number 9 also had excellent 2D image quality and Windows acceleration but fall down hard when you try to game with them.

Matrox is ok but overrated. Don't go older than G200 or you could have problems because their Windows drivers do some PCI hacks for benchmarks that can cause image quality problems, instability and affect PCI sound cards.

The best #9 cards for us are surely their S3-based products.

These two companies were all about expensive GUI accelerators and that market was gone by the late '90s. Their best cards don't have a useful speed advantage once you reach NV TNT and Voodoo Banshee.