One option is, to leave a bit the appropriate time matching hardware of VGA cards this era.
When this is no problem why not go with a GF2-MX, -MX200 or -MX400?
The GF2-MX200 speed is quite close to a Voodoo3 3000.

Have you tried Taobao? I had good luck finding an AWE64 Gold there for a reasonable price a few years back. Use Google Translate or find a friend who speaks Chinese.

I would recommend a few different cards if you can't find a Voodoo 3 3000 for a decent price. Matrox G400 Max is a great alternative that can usually be found cheap. GeForce 3 Ti200 is also very good. GeForce 4 Ti4200 is very overkill, but still easily found at reasonable prices.

However, if you really want a Voodoo 3 3000, you should be patient and wait for a good deal. They're not that hard to find. Patience is the key. Just check eBay and whatever local trading sites you have every day. Know what you want, how much you're willing to spend, and be ready to pull the trigger quickly when you find it.

Also, research and learn the parts numbers and designations for cards used in OEM builds. You can often find cards like the GF3 Ti200, GF4 Ti4200, and others listed that way as pulls from HP, Dell, and Compaq systems. You'll also have less chance of getting into a bidding war on items are that aren't advertised clearly.

For a P2-400, the Matrox G400 Max is the card I would recommend. It is ideal, period correct, and performs similarly to the Voodoo 3 and TNT2.

http://www.philscomputerlab.com/matrox-g200-g … 50-roundup.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLtrux-EZ0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinfyV_PdSc

http://assets.hardwarezone.com/2009/reviews/v … ax/g400max.html

Edit: As Melbar also mentioned above, the GF2 MX400 is also a good budget card that performs as well as a Voodoo 3 3000. It's a good choice too, but I still prefer the Matrox G400 Max in this scenario.

Where do people hunt for old video cards in Australia? I did a search on ebay.com.au and the options were limited. I could only find one reasonably priced GF4 MX440 and a Radeon 7500 worthy of buying.

For a Pentium2 400? Either Geforce2 GTS/Pro/Ti/Ultra or Geforce3 if you want a really fast card that can be had for peanuts whilst having 32bpp and T&L support (which does help with slow cpus 😉 )

The MX440 would be a good card it's basically a high end GeForce 2.

Edit: I've had good success using Geforce FX5200/5500 on my pentium pro machine, good compatibility with Dos and Windows but I've been using windows 98SE, not sure if windows 95 will start becoming a problem because of the OS age with much newer cards.

Only reason to use a card like a Geforce 3ti/4ti/FX5200/5500 on such a slow CPU would be to use the DX8 features for games like Max Payne Or Mafia but I suspect the cpu will be too much of a bottleneck.

If you want to run 3dmark 2001se with all the benchmarks the Geforce 2s & Geforce 4MX gpus wont cut it as they dont support DX8.

For potential cheap sources for graphics cards try http://www.overclockers.com.au we have a retro computer section with its own trade section just post a WTB add.

Agreed with what's already been said here. Imo the TNT2, GF2 and the MX's should be the easiest ones to find and cheaper. I'm kinda surprised the TNT2 proper is hard to find. The biggest 'problem' used to be to find an actual 128-bit TNT2 amongst the mountains of M64s and Vantas. But especially the non-ultras shouldn't be more rare then, say, a Voodoo 3. Watch out for the Diamond Viper V770, it's a TNT2 Pro and has a very distinct look and shouldn't be rare at all and was of good build quality when I used it.

I never used one myself, but no Matrox?
But anyway, GF2 (any! 😁) and GF2MX/GF4MX should be easy to find and not very expensive (and basically any MX should be sufficient for your needs I reckon, even the crippled ones).

dirkmirk wrote:

For potential cheap sources for graphics cards try http://www.overclockers.com.au we have a retro computer section with its own trade section just post a WTB add.

This seems to actually be a fun community! Too bad I couldn't register there as it really wanted an email that wasn't a hotmail and the likes 😒
Obviously I wouldn't do it for the parts due to shipping 🤣! Yes, I did it once, took months! 🤣

Thanks very much for your advice, everyone!

I managed to get a Voodoo Banshee card that I thought was dead working with a little bit of iso alcohol on the contacts. I'm actually very happy with it, performance exceeded my expectations. I'm surprised that was all it took. Fingers crossed that it lasts a while.

I also managed to get my hands on a second Pentium 2 build (for free!!) that I will be running primarily as a DOS machine, while I upgrade the current one to a pentium 3, as it turns out my motherboard supports Katmai versions just fine. So I've kinda abandoned the concern about backwards compatibility.

I did keep an eye out for Matrox cards, since they hadn't come up on my radar before. There wasnt much out there but after reading up about them I'm pretty keen to try one out, so I'll look to get my hands on one in the future.

Sadly I have to concur it has been hard to find parts in Australia, but I'll keep an eye on the overclockers forum.

And lastly, I treated myself to a Voodoo 3 from electromyne. Without wanting to sound like a shill, I got a large order from them recently and everything worked perfectly, so I had the confidence in spending a little extra on a card from them.

If I can find a Viper V770 I'll snap it up also.

What a rabbit hole ive found myself in. Its so much fun comparing all of the stuff I wanted when I was a teenager 😁

I'm glad you got what you wanted! You can't go wrong with a Voodoo 3. I firmly believe they're the best card for Win9x retro-gaming. Anything the Voodoo 3 can't handle will probably run better under WinXP anyway, and you have a much wider array of parts at your disposal for a WinXP legacy PC. (The sole exception probably being Black & White. While it ran OK on my Voodoo 3 cards, it certainly runs much better with a GeForce 3 or 4. And it only runs really well under Win9x.).

I also agree with pretty much everything everybody else wrote above. I just didn't think of it first. An FX 5200 or 5500 would also be very good. The MX440 is also a great idea. Kudos to dirkmirk for thinking of those.

I'm glad you're still considering the Matrox card, but I wouldn't bother since you've already got the Voodoo 3. It's a much better all-around card. With the Matrox card you get EMBM with a few games, but with the Voodoo 3 you get GLIDE support with a bunch of games. You made the right choice. 😉

(My Voodoo 3 systems get the most attention. The Matrox G400 Max languishes in an anti-static box.)

i would pair my asus geforce fx5500 with asus p2b and pentium II 400mhz with 1gb of ram. Is this a good choiche? 😀 thanks and sorry for the necropost 🤣

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:09:

i would pair my asus geforce fx5500 with asus p2b and pentium II 400mhz with 1gb of ram. Is this a good choiche? 😀 thanks and sorry for the necropost 🤣

I guess that would work ok as the card is supposed to just be a slightly faster fx5200

although the fx5200 was always considered budget / low performing it should be equal to anything that would also run on a P2 so why not? Give it a go

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:09:

i would pair my asus geforce fx5500 with asus p2b and pentium II 400mhz with 1gb of ram. Is this a good choiche? 😀 thanks and sorry for the necropost 🤣

While the FX5500 isn't bad for old games, I'd rather pair it with an early GeForce card (such as GeForce 2 or 4 MX) instead of using a GeForce FX card. 😀 However the later the card is the more recent driver is required and these comes with more CPU overhead.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:27:

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:09:

i would pair my asus geforce fx5500 with asus p2b and pentium II 400mhz with 1gb of ram. Is this a good choiche? 😀 thanks and sorry for the necropost 🤣

While the FX5500 isn't bad for old games, I'd rather pair it with an early GeForce card (such as GeForce 2 or 4 MX) instead of using a GeForce FX card. 😀 However the later the card is the more recent driver is required and these comes with more CPU overhead.

i could buy actually these models:
1) matrox g400 dual head
2) geforce 4 ti4200 (pro bably overkill)
3) voodoo 2
4) geforce 256
and for drivers? 😀 i would install w98

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:09:

i could buy actually these models: 1) matrox g400 dual head 2) geforce 4 ti4200 (pro bably overkill) 3) voodoo 2 4) geforce 256 […]
Show full quote

i could buy actually these models:
1) matrox g400 dual head
2) geforce 4 ti4200 (pro bably overkill)
3) voodoo 2
4) geforce 256
and for drivers? 😀 i would install w98

I would go for the GeForce 256 since it allows you to use early nVidia drivers.

You can also add a Voodoo2 there if you have enough money to buy it for Glide compatibility since it's just an add-on card.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:14:

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:09:

i could buy actually these models: 1) matrox g400 dual head 2) geforce 4 ti4200 (pro bably overkill) 3) voodoo 2 4) geforce 256 […]
Show full quote

i could buy actually these models:
1) matrox g400 dual head
2) geforce 4 ti4200 (pro bably overkill)
3) voodoo 2
4) geforce 256
and for drivers? 😀 i would install w98

I would go for the GeForce 256 since it allows you to use early nVidia drivers.

You can also add a Voodoo2 there if you have enough money to buy it for Glide compatibility since it's just an add-on card.

why geforce 256 has been so important? does it have better performance compared to other models? 😀
do you suggest a radeon model? 7500 or 9800? 😀))))

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:25:

why geforce 256 has been so important? does it have better performance compared to other models? 😀

GeForce 256 was the first consumer card with hardware T&L support and where the GPU term is introduced to the masses. 😀 Hardware T&L can improve performance with the CPU you are currently using.

However, the performance of the GeForce 256 is slow compared to the GeForce 4 Ti but the latter one is overkill.

lazibayer wrote on 2017-08-10, 17:00:

Where do people hunt for old video cards in Australia? I did a search on ebay.com.au and the options were limited. I could only find one reasonably priced GF4 MX440 and a Radeon 7500 worthy of buying.

In Australia you have to ask Ben ,,, before he destroys every computer on Australian soil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXAghbkcEU&t=129s
Lately something saves to resell it

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:33:

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:25:

why geforce 256 has been so important? does it have better performance compared to other models? 😀

GeForce 256 was the first consumer card with hardware T&L support and where the GPU term is introduced to the masses. 😀 Hardware T&L can improve performance with the CPU you are currently using.

However, the performance of the GeForce 256 is slow compared to the GeForce 4 Ti but the latter one is overkill.

thanks man 😀 about any radeon gpu model??

dragonerosso wrote on 2021-09-06, 21:06:

thanks man 😀 about any radeon gpu model??

They're quite decent but they lack the 8-bit palettized texture support, have issues with fog table and have poor OpenGL driver support except the games where they were finetuned.

dataino.it wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:39:

lazibayer wrote on 2017-08-10, 17:00:

Where do people hunt for old video cards in Australia? I did a search on ebay.com.au and the options were limited. I could only find one reasonably priced GF4 MX440 and a Radeon 7500 worthy of buying.

In australia you have to ask Ben ,,, before he destroys every computer on Australian soil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXAghbkcEU&t=129s
Lately something saves to resell it

Oh jeez he's not very careful with parts he intends to sell.

and that old HDD he smashes out with a hammer haha... Mm platinum... $$$...