Now I am running similiar configuration:
- Abit KT7A Rev 1.2 (VIA KT133A) with 686B northbridge which is usually paired also with 694T chipset
- Barton 2500 (FSB 333) running at 11x133 = 1466 Mhz
- Geforce 4MX 440 (128MB/128BIT)
- two sound cards:
1) for Windows98SE and real OPL3 in DOS - Yamaha XG 724 PCI (DOS driver patched for 686B from vogons.org thread, however works only with DMA 0)
2) for better compatibility in DOS - ISA (currently AD1816 based, but second one with ALS100+OPL3 onboard is on the way)

Summarizing (for my own experience) :
Ad1) with 686B southbridge you have full ISA support, all signals are present, good choice
Ad2/5) About cpu speed... Those unplayabe (caused by too fast CPU), were unplayable already on Celly 266 if I remember correctly.
Ad3) Memory... I have 512MB here (Windows 9x limit), with DOS you can easily decrease EMS size to 16MB (in config.sys) what helps with i.e. Aladdin
Ad4) I remember running DOSBox megabuild 5 (with OPL passthrough - what takes off emulation from CPU) on Pentium !!! 650MHz with good speed, so don't be afraid just try 😀
My choice is Nvidia with speed / great dos compatibility / and VBE 3.0 / unbeatable price... Of course It's lacking Glide compatibility, but I can live with that. For Tomb 1, Glidos is doing job very well 😀

zyga64 wrote:

Now I am running similiar configuration: - Abit KT7A Rev 1.2 (VIA KT133A) with 686B northbridge which is usually paired also wit […]
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Now I am running similiar configuration:
- Abit KT7A Rev 1.2 (VIA KT133A) with 686B northbridge which is usually paired also with 694T chipset
- Barton 2500 (FSB 333) running at 11x133 = 1466 Mhz
- Geforce 4MX 440 (128MB/128BIT)
- two sound cards:
1) for Windows98SE and real OPL3 in DOS - Yamaha XG 724 PCI (DOS driver patched for 686B from vogons.org thread, however works only with DMA 0)
2) for better compatibility in DOS - ISA (currently AD1816 based, but second one with ALS100+OPL3 onboard is on the way)

Summarizing (for my own experience) :
Ad1) with 686B southbridge you have full ISA support, all signals are present, good choice
Ad2/5) About cpu speed... Those unplayabe (caused by too fast CPU), were unplayable already on Celly 266 if I remember correctly.
Ad3) Memory... I have 512MB here (Windows 9x limit), with DOS you can easily decrease EMS size to 16MB (in config.sys) what helps with i.e. Aladdin
Ad4) I remember running DOSBox megabuild 5 (with OPL passthrough - what takes off emulation from CPU) on Pentium !!! 650MHz with good speed, so don't be afraid just try 😀
My choice is Nvidia with speed / great dos compatibility / and VBE 3.0 / unbeatable price... Of course It's lacking Glide compatibility, but I can live with that. For Tomb 1, Glidos is doing job very well 😀

Thank u, bro, u helped me a lot! I'm going to take that motherboard ASAP. And I may run a 800Mhz coppermine Pentium III with 133 FSB, if 266/300 MHz is something useless for those retro dos games....

Actually, I'm thinking of building this rig with my SB AWE64 Gold and Diamond MX200, because the specs are pretty far way from running normal 486/Pentium class dos games. AWE64 gold and MX200 are much better for those later 90s' dos games and early win98 era games rather than Yamaha OPL IMHO.

Geforce series graphic cards are really nice choices, but voodoo 3 is as good as what they can do for those dos games and DX 5.0~6.0 games, and can do more with glide API for those early win98 era games. The only weakness is its opengl compatibility, so I may build this rig into a dual graphic cards system such as Geforce 2 GTS AGP 4x + Voodoo 3 3000 PCI. Another considering replacement of GF2 is a S3 Savage 2K, so that I can even go into some S3TC games like Unreal Series, but S3's driver support and opengl compatibility is something really worried me a lot....

You know - the best part is discovering all the nuances by yourself 😀
I've already had BX Slot1 platform, UMC Socket 3 with Cyrix 5x86, paired with Voodoo 3, S3 Virge, SB AWE64 and Yamaha... Etc.
All these components now have found new owners, and I ended up with Socket A platform.

BTW. If you're interested in decreasing EMS memory in DOS - here is part of my config.sys:

1DEVICE=c:\drivers\jemm\jemmex.exe MAXEXT=16384 NOVME
2dos=HIGH,UMB

Of course you have to download JEMM memory expander (it replaces here both himem.sys and emm386.exe).

Win98SE (second edition) works fine with 1GB of ram. As for the slowdown... even at 266mhz, a PIII will not run speed sensitive DOS games properly. Put a Tualatin P3 in there and use DOSBOX for those few speed sensitive titles. The rest will run great under win98 or DOS.