I think you'll want to go a full step beyond the PII, which to me means a late PIII or an Athlon, maybe a Thunderbird. My Voodoo5 setup is a 1.4GHz Tualatin PIII. The top end of the 3dfx range certainly extends to 2000, beyond that is GeForce3/4/FX territory.

A PII isn't going to be comfortable for anything past Y2K.
I suggest aiming as the above, with a Geforce 2 GTs if possible or a Geforce 3, up to a geforce 4- past there compatability takes a dive.

CPU and GPU demand grows substantially from year to year for early 2000 projects. So yea, I would also aim higher. You shouldn't run into many speed sensitive games I believe. A Socket A machine with a GeForce4 type card could be a good start? I'd also go with Windows XP.

I was considering Athlon Thunderbird, possibly the 1.4Ghz chip on 133mhz FSB. But then Athlon XP has SSE... And if I really want SSE, why not just run to Pentium III?

And while I was hoping to take a look at 3dfx and glide, it seems like the only real card there *is* the Voodoo5, and those are more expensive than I realized. May just stick to that Geforce...

Are there any stand-out chipsets and/or boards for the early Socket A or Socket 370 platforms?

An alternative is the AMD Duron. Often overlooked for some reason. But it's very strong and the later revisions do have SSE AFAIK.

atariangamer wrote:

I was considering Athlon Thunderbird, possibly the 1.4Ghz chip on 133mhz FSB. But then Athlon XP has SSE... And if I really want SSE, why not just run to Pentium III?

And while I was hoping to take a look at 3dfx and glide, it seems like the only real card there *is* the Voodoo5, and those are more expensive than I realized. May just stick to that Geforce...

Are there any stand-out chipsets and/or boards for the early Socket A or Socket 370 platforms?

If finding a PSU with good 5v values isn't a problem, you might even opt for a Palomino rig (something like a 2000+) and you will have SSE while having slightly faster speed.
You'll have a vast array of sA boards to choose from. Most noticeable chipsets for sA were NF and the VIA ones. I personally preferred the VIA ones, but these did have some bugs and such.
Another favorite of mine is the Tualatin 1400. Either Intel or VIA chipset again.
I'd use WinME as main OS for such a rig. XP is a bit too sluggish for my tastes and my Tualatin-s 1400 made due with a very rapid 20GB 2.5in harddrive which I loved using.
512MB RAM or slightly less (like 384MB) should do well enough, for NT5.x you'd need more RAM (which the Intel Tualatin boards cannot support).

The easiest way out for you might be to get a Tualatin capable s370 board, get a Tualatin-s 1400 CPU. Watch out for the taller IHS of the Tualatin and don't put too much pressure on those socket tab thingies. Also get a HSF which clamp around all 3 (or sometimes 2) of those socket tab extension thingies and bend the mounting clip of the HSF. These measures will reduce the odds of these tabs snapping (you don't want such a HSF dropping on your graphics card 🤣).

Palomino is roughly similar, except no IHS so most heavier sA heatsinks will do. PSU is the main issue here. Some boards are tricky to get stable, but that's part of the challenge 😁

And if you want easy mode, get a s478 i865 board (made by Intel) and go Northwood 800MHz FSB + SATA.

Forgot about the graphics card, I'd say something along the lines of GF2/GF3/GF4MX (perhaps GF4 or FX).

I did aim a bit more powerful purposefully here, you wouldn't want to build a rig that turned out to still be too slow, which makes you end up having to build another one (which might actually be a good thing 🤣)

atariangamer wrote:

I was considering Athlon Thunderbird, possibly the 1.4Ghz chip on 133mhz FSB. But then Athlon XP has SSE... And if I really want SSE, why not just run to Pentium III?

But what is SSE (as opposed to SSE2) really good for? Are there any games or applications that require SSE or give significant performance boost?

EDIT:Oh, I remember one. Sudeki runs on Athlon XP but does not on Thunderbird.

Steam is a big one.

Tetrium good point about XP being sluggish. I might try XP (Vanialla or SP1) on a slower machine just to see what it's like 😀

If you you are not interested in DOS (it seems), then: up to P4 2.0 (or able to downclock to this) Northwood, i845 (i865 for SATA, but potentially worse compatible), DDR 512x2 and GF3.

SRQ wrote:

I suggest aiming as the above, with a Geforce 2 GTs if possible or a Geforce 3, up to a geforce 4- past there compatability takes a dive.

When I tested Unreal Tourment, the cards up to GF3 had similar issues, while GF4 added own ones. I suspect the architecture difference since GF4 may reduce the compatibility with other games too.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Steam is a big one.

Tetrium good point about XP being sluggish. I might try XP (Vanialla or SP1) on a slower machine just to see what it's like 😀

I forgot about steam 😊 (I'm not using steam, so it's not something I know a lot about).
I found XP sluggish on anything not P4/AXP with at least 1GB of RAM, but the i865 Northwood I mentioned earlier, it's more of an XP rig.
XP is sluggish I think, but I liked using NLite on XP >=SP2.

atariangamer certainly has a lot of options 😄

I did use XP on a Coppermine 800 with something like 256MB RAM. Interesting to see what you think about its sluggishness Phil 😀
Server 2003 (which is basically based on XP) was much less sluggish btw, I had some trial version disk that I ended up installing, then tweaking it to become more of a desktop OS but this is a bit out of the scope of the original question that was asked here 😊

Tetrium wrote:

atariangamer certainly has a lot of options 😄

More than I realized! 😲

After looking around a bit, I think I might want to go with Tualatin-s, just for the fact that I easily found one. And the mainboard... I've easily located VIAs Apollo Pro chipset for Tualatin, but intel has... i815? Which doesn't look anywhere near as nice in comparison.

Also, stumbled across a GA-6VXE7+ board that has ISA slots... bit expensive, but does this mean I could run nicer ISA sound cards in Windows?

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

CPU and GPU demand grows substantially from year to year for early 2000 projects. So yea, I would also aim higher. You shouldn't run into many speed sensitive games I believe. A Socket A machine with a GeForce4 type card could be a good start? I'd also go with Windows XP.

Basic rule for athlons was not to combine amd with nvidia and via versa. Heat and compabilty were the main issue back then. I suggest a athlon or duron combined with a ati 9600 or 9800 for a period correct machine. A thoroughbred s easy to OC if wanted but athlons require a decent cpu cooling.

When going with a PIII a tualatin with a Geforce 2 tI'll a Geforce 4 is best. The Intel 815EP is advices but is limited to 512 mb ram do a via chipset is also a option.
For a OS I could recommend either 98 or ME, I have a 'modded' version of ME which is stable and works great.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Steam is a big one.

Tetrium good point about XP being sluggish. I might try XP (Vanialla or SP1) on a slower machine just to see what it's like 😀

I currently use XP SP 3 on my PII 450 Mhz it has 512 Mb Ram though, imo doesn't feel sluggish. Will dual boot xp and 98SE on my PIII so time will tell.

I was under the impression that ATI's Radeon series held the performance crown for games up through the X800 series until nVidia released their GeForce 6xxx series.

I have a similar build to what the OP wants. It's a Windows XP SP3 computer based around the AMD Athlon XP processor. When I built it in 2002, I used the 1800+ Palomino chip. The MB is an Abit KX7-333 without RAID. I also originally built it with 256 MB of DDR-266 (when XP was just SP1) and a Radeon 7500. Clearly, as a 2002-2003 build, it leaves something to be desired. Right now, it has an Athlon XP 3200+ Barton, 2GB of DDR-333 (rated at 400MHz), and a Radeon 9550. What I'm looking for now is a 9800 Pro or 9800 XT.

I'd build a nice Duron "Spitfire" , they are fast, cheap and what all the smart people had in 2000 ish era.

Going with an early AthlonXP such in the 1500+/1700+ range with a DX8/9 class card (Radeon 9600 Series would be my pick for early 2000s) would probably define the early to mid 2000s IMO. PIIIs and Athlons are late 90s and would suffer pretty bad for any game from 2002 onwards. Just check out some Splinter Cell benchmarks.

Also as Phin said: Steam. 'nuff said.

My advice is to go for exactly what you always wanted before the prices go insane, you will have to keep in mind that some of even the best parts from this era might not be in the best condition anymore so replacing caps ect is a must. Socket A, 423, and 478 unless you want to go into deeper waters with a more exotic system like a 603/4 xeon build or a Pentium M rig. Almost anything dual socket with a proper agp slot is going to be really desirable by collectors.

The only major issue with socket A is finding a board that isn't shit quality wise and still works but there are still plenty of cheap oem boards if knows where to look. Also keep checking for lots and bundles as some people occasionally post some Awesome deals for like $30-40 that basically give you a whole system minus the case and drives. The pentium 4 stuff is still cheap but prices are rising on the choice stuff.

BSA Starfire wrote:

I'd build a nice Duron "Spitfire" , they are fast, cheap and what all the smart people had in 2000 ish era.

Don't you mean the budget gamer pc? Most pple on a tight budget had duron, they were stable as hell and performed quite well but still budget.

nforce4max wrote:

My advice is to go for exactly what you always wanted before the prices go insane, you will have to keep in mind that some of even the best parts from this era might not be in the best condition anymore so replacing caps ect is a must.

The only major issue with socket A is finding a board that isn't shit quality wise and still works but there are still plenty of cheap oem boards if knows where to look. Also keep checking for lots and bundles as some people occasionally post some Awesome deals for like $30-40 that basically give you a whole system minus the case and drives. The pentium 4 stuff is still cheap but prices are rising on the choice stuff.

Asus A7N8X (one of the best Socket A boards with Nforce) are being sold alot lately on ebay under €40,- alot include a decent barton and or 1 Gb ddr.

And what's wrong with "budget" when it was as good as the Duron? Great little chips, fast and trouble free, what more could you ask for a period retro box?

BSA Starfire wrote:

And what's wrong with "budget" when it was as good as the Duron? Great little chips, fast and trouble free, what more could you ask for a period retro box?

I agree but right now this is getting to be end where the posh stuff can still be had for reasonable prices let alone peanuts for those getting lucky. Duron for historical reasons is worth building plus it is fun building tinkering with a mix of posh and budget to make a more unique or interesting system. I just wish that it was still like how it was in the 2000s where there was a lot more to go around and prices were not so steep like $5-10 GF256s ect. My first V5 5500 agp off eBay no less only cost me $11 shipped but now days the prices are depressing which has forced me to hoard what I can.