For playing ALL Glide games you’ll find that some games require Voodoo Graphics and/or Voodoo II, some are speed sensitive, and later games need the horsepower of a more powerful CPU.

In short, whilst you probably can build a one size fits all PC, it might be easier to have a couple.

My P3 450 based system (see sig) handles TR1, Descent 3, Quake 3 & Rune no problem. That covers 1996-2000 I think.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2023-07-09, 12:05:

My AMD K6-3 @550mhz can be slowed down to 486 speeds using software like “Setmul” ( set multiplier )

That's more for DOS era games.
As for V3, period correct are P3 and SB Live! / Aureal Vortex 2.

stef80 wrote on 2023-07-10, 21:37:

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2023-07-09, 12:05:

My AMD K6-3 @550mhz can be slowed down to 486 speeds using software like “Setmul” ( set multiplier )

That's more for DOS era games.
As for V3, period correct are P3 and SB Live! / Aureal Vortex 2.

I concur. I bought my Voodoo3 3000 back in mid-2000 and paired it with an AMD Duron 600 MHz and a Sound Blaster Live!

I'd say any pentium II/III or Athlon/Duron between 600 and 1GHz will work fine with a Voodoo 3. The exact speed depends on what you want to play and if you plan on playing speed sensitive dos games or not.

My favorite Voodoo 3 PC is...

*drumroll*

Lightning: Voodoo 3 Unchained

Mainboard: ASRock K7VM2
CPU: AMD AthlonXP 2200+
RAM: 1GB (2x512MB SDR)
Graphics: 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Sound: Terratec DMX XFire 1024 (CS4624) PCI
Operating System: Windows 2000 SP4

Okay thanks for your comments guys.

I think I will try this setup

Specs:
Socket 370 motherboard
Pentium-3 @ 1ghz CPU
256mb RAM
Voodoo-3-3000 AGP
Audigy 2zs

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2023-07-14, 16:47:

Okay thanks for your comments guys. […]
Show full quote

Okay thanks for your comments guys.

I think I will try this setup

Specs:
Socket 370 motherboard
Pentium-3 @ 1ghz CPU
256mb RAM
Voodoo-3-3000 AGP
Audigy 2zs

please note that in the voodoo 3 you get Glide but is slow and sucks for lot of directx/opengl games from the era: ie max payne, serious sam 1 and 2, you will play them by photo

Sorry for highjacking this thread but I have similar question and it is not worth to make own thread. I just pulled the trigger for Voodoo 3 2000 agp card . It was bit cheaper than usual and I could not resist.

I now want to make second voodoo 3 only rig.

My first rig has Asus p2b mainboard and came with a pentium 2 400 MHz cpu. In the long run, I will replace the p2 450 mhz with p3 900 mhz to utilize the power of the main GPU. A gainward geforce 4 4200 ti.

I now wonder if the Pentium 2 450 MHz is fast enough for a decent Voodoo 3 system. My plan A would be to get another Intel 440bx main board and use it with the p2 400 MHz and the Voodoo 3 as my main glide machine.

Or would it be better to get a more powerful socket 370 system with p3?

I want to build a very fast glide machine for games from 97 to 2000/2001. I am aware that for 2000 and 2000 a Voodoo 4 or 5 would be better choices but the Voodoo 3 2000 agp is all I got and that is not going to change.

As long as I am not getting filthy rich a voodoo 4 or 5 is out of my reach.

High-frequency PIII will improve performance in CPU demanding games like Half-Life.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-07-14, 19:56:

High-frequency PIII will improve performance in CPU demanding games like Half-Life.

That's good to know. Half-Life is one of the games I want to play for sure on the Voodoo 3 machine. How fast could I go in the p3 range? Trying to get another p3 900mhz coppermine or even go up to 1 GHZ?

Well, difference in 100 Mhz is not significant. So the one you can get cheaper.

Mine voodoo build is 900mhz pentium 3 with bx440 mobo and 256 mb of ram. It runs great games till year 2000.

Small note: difference between PIII 900/100 and PIII 1000/133 can be noticeable, so pick CPU with 133 Mhz FSB, if possible with your motherboard.

ciornyi wrote on 2023-07-15, 06:40:

Mine voodoo build is 900mhz pentium 3 with bx440 mobo and 256 mb of ram. It runs great games till year 2000.

This sounds like good combo. my first rig also has a asus mb with the bx440 and it runs really nice.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-07-15, 10:12:

Small note: difference between PIII 900/100 and PIII 1000/133 can be noticeable, so pick CPU with 133 Mhz FSB, if possible with your motherboard.

That's good info. I have also checked the price of the p3 900mhz and the p3 1000 mhz. The price difference is neglectable.

So I will go with the p3 1000 mhz and 133 mhz fsb in the first place.

Are there some good socket 370 mhz mother boards that your just known tow work you could recommend?

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-07-15, 17:42:

Are there some good socket 370 mhz mother boards that your just known tow work you could recommend?

- for 100MHz FSB CPUs: Abit BH6, BX6 or BE6-II. Frankly any half decent intel 440bx board will do. I just prefer Abit because of SoftMenu witch lets you select FSB, cache timings and multiplier settings in BIOS.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs, PCI sound cards, tualatin support: Abit ST6, Asus TUV4X - check for bad caps on both of these. The asus usually has bloated caps under the AGP slot and around the northbridge - the 1000uf caps, while on the abit it's usually the 1500uf caps near the CPU socket that go bad.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs + ISA slot: Abit AB-VH6T, Asus CUV4X, CUV4X-M, CUV4X-C - good for any P3 up to 1133MHz. Also supports VIA C3 Nemiah CPUs.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs, ISA and Tualatin support: MSI 694T PRO (also known as MS-6309 v5.x), Aopen AX34-U. The 694T PRO also supports VIA Nemiah CPUs out of the box (wtich you can speed up / slow down via software with setmul) and also overclocks really well if you're into that. My board can run my VIA C3 1200 Nemiah at 1400MHz stable, stock voltage. The Aopen is also a good overclocker and will happily run with any video card or ram you throw at it. My board can comfortably drive most 1100MHz Tualatin Celerons at 1460MHz (133x11) and even some 1200MHz celerons at 1600MHz / 1.6v. Be wary of bad caps on the MSI. Rev 5 boards are generally ok, but most 5.1 can have bloated caps.

Someone's changed their tune...

Socket3 wrote on 2023-07-15, 20:54:

- for 100MHz FSB CPUs: Abit BH6, BX6 or BE6-II. Frankly any half decent intel 440bx board will do. I just prefer Abit because of […]
Show full quote

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-07-15, 17:42:

Are there some good socket 370 mhz mother boards that your just known tow work you could recommend?

- for 100MHz FSB CPUs: Abit BH6, BX6 or BE6-II. Frankly any half decent intel 440bx board will do. I just prefer Abit because of SoftMenu witch lets you select FSB, cache timings and multiplier settings in BIOS.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs, PCI sound cards, tualatin support: Abit ST6, Asus TUV4X - check for bad caps on both of these. The asus usually has bloated caps under the AGP slot and around the northbridge - the 1000uf caps, while on the abit it's usually the 1500uf caps near the CPU socket that go bad.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs + ISA slot: Abit AB-VH6T, Asus CUV4X, CUV4X-M, CUV4X-C - good for any P3 up to 1133MHz. Also supports VIA C3 Nemiah CPUs.

- for 133MHz FSB CPUs, ISA and Tualatin support: MSI 694T PRO (also known as MS-6309 v5.x), Aopen AX34-U. The 694T PRO also supports VIA Nemiah CPUs out of the box (wtich you can speed up / slow down via software with setmul) and also overclocks really well if you're into that. My board can run my VIA C3 1200 Nemiah at 1400MHz stable, stock voltage. The Aopen is also a good overclocker and will happily run with any video card or ram you throw at it. My board can comfortably drive most 1100MHz Tualatin Celerons at 1460MHz (133x11) and even some 1200MHz celerons at 1600MHz / 1.6v. Be wary of bad caps on the MSI. Rev 5 boards are generally ok, but most 5.1 can have bloated caps.

Thanks a lot for your very detailed answer.

It is nice that you mentioned some over clocking options. I am not into overclocking yet but I want to get into it at some point in the future when I am more experienced so nowing some main boards that are over clocking friendly.

Also thx for mentioning boards with Tualatin support. I just looked into p3 coppermine because I have read that Tualatin are rather hard to find and are quite expensive.

But in case I should find a P3 Tualatin at a good price I would hesitate to for it.

I am not sure if the I really need P3 Tualatin for gaming in practical terms but it would be very neat ot have a p3 Tualatin system just for the coolness factor.

This is my NON-working Voodoo 3 card collection.
I need to Fix some of these cards and get them working again.
They have minor issues.