The fastest version of that is probably a k6-3+ with a radeon 9250 128bit or radeon 7500 64/128bit , or geforce 2/3 no usb 2.0 card, 128 or 64mb of ram, and a sata ssd

I tried one stick of 64 MB of RAM, and I can't say definitively that it is better based on just "eyeballing" it. If it is, then it might be a touch smoother in the sense the hitching seems to be in shorter intervals.

I actually upgraded the processor to an AMD K6-2 500, and I am mostly getting the same results with Half-Life. Ultimately, I feel this is just the GA-5SMM board doing the best it can. I think my next upgrade would be a new Mobo that supports AGP GPUs. I have an "era appropriate" 16 MB Voodoo3 3000 sitting around just collecting dust that would be fun to try with this CPU. Mobo recommendations would be appreciated!

I will continue to tweak this system more, and will keep posting any interesting updates here.