There is currently a lengthy thread about how the GeForce4 MX is a terrible card for most purposes. But that is a different matter.

Any PCI network card you can find will probably be fine; there's no need to be choosy. If you just want to pick one, then the 3COM 905B seems to be abundant.

I used an NE2000 compatible and an RTL8139 without issues in Win 9x days. Both were automatically detected.

I've got a Linksys LNE100TX in mine, and I've never had any trouble with it. I recall only ever having some issues with a D-Link card years back, which caused me to stick with Linksys cards for years.
Even now, every single router in my house, wired, or wireless, is a Linksys router, and every one of them shares the same color scheme. Because it's awesome. That said, if something clearly superior became available, I wouldn't turn my nose up at it out of some misguided sense of brand loyalty.

I'd avoid RTL8139-type chips. They have bullet-proof drivers, but CPU usage is high. 3Com Etherlink III cards are a good bet, as are Intel and DEC-based ones. The LNE100TX is a DEC Tulip.

That applies even more with Gigabit cards, they will devour CPU cycles if you're not careful.

dionb wrote on 2020-10-06, 17:02:

I'd avoid RTL8139-type chips. They have bullet-proof drivers, but CPU usage is high. 3Com Etherlink III cards are a good bet, as are Intel and DEC-based ones. The LNE100TX is a DEC Tulip.

That applies even more with Gigabit cards, they will devour CPU cycles if you're not careful.

And don't expect great performance with any Gigabit NIC under Windows 9x , no matter what settings you end up tweaking . See this thread Pentium III + Windows 98, Slow network transfers

I use a RTL8169S-32 based NIC (Connectland CR-GIGA-32B sometimes known as CR-CNL-GIGA-32B) in my S7 P133/i430VX rig, so far I haven't noticied any unusual behavior (or high CPU usage for that matter).

I kept it purely because of its wide array of supported OSes (it is supported from Windows 98 all the way up to Windows 10 according to Realtek's website).

I use LNE100TX cards primarily for PCI Win9x systems. They are dirt cheap.. A while back I picked up a few NIB on Ebay for $7ea shipped. They have drivers available for wide variety of legacy OS's.

Intel highly available and less troublesome in compatibility and drivers. 3Com now less available and a bit pricey, because of retro tag, and they offer better performance if your CPU is early Pentium or slower. Realtek 8139 (stay away from 8029) if you desperate to find previous two, just beware most of this cards made too cheap and often being dead, and person how trying to sell them most likely never tested them cause it's too cheap to invest time.

_UV_ wrote on 2020-10-07, 06:54:

Intel highly available and less troublesome in compatibility and drivers. 3Com now less available and a bit pricey, because of retro tag, and they offer better performance if your CPU is early Pentium or slower. Realtek 8139 (stay away from 8029) if you desperate to find previous two, just beware most of this cards made too cheap and often being dead, and person how trying to sell them most likely never tested them cause it's too cheap to invest time.

3Com PCI cards pricey? Where? I've never been able to get enough for them to make it my while to sell/ship, so I usually end up dumping them in 'best offer for this box full of crap' piles.

The ISA 3C509 cards are getting sought-after, but the 10/100MbE 905s are common as muck and valued accordingly.

The Buy it Now price for 3Com has gone up but if wait for a honest listing they can still be had cheap. I got 4 for £4.79 back in May and that guy had 2 other lots that went for about the same price at the time.
Also a fan of Intel Pro/100 cards
Both the above have built in drivers although your better off updating them.

Realtek RTL8139 aren´t sexy but they get the job done, cost next to nothing and drivers are really good. CPU does take a bit of a hit but I dont notice that in real life usage.
Any other brand name card that has drivers should be fine though. Ive used Netgear, Linksys, Broardcom all with good sucsess.

Pretty much the only PCI ethernet cards I've used in builds have been Realtek 8139 or Intel Pro 100. I also haven't really noticed a major hit in CPU usage with the 8139 during normal day to day usage.

ebay's cheap PCI LAN card also have win9x drivers.
But you should check win98 anti-virus or not access Internet with that.

Thanks you very much,

I've gone with a RTL 8139D because I got 2 of them for 4 Euros plus an original driver floppy.

Just curious, what are you going to use the network card for? Lan gaming? File Transfers? Gestalt?