Athlon XP 2800+ has acceptable performance for most games until 2005. But I don't see anything appealing in this listing for that price, because it doesn't have video card included. Judging by photos, motherboard might have a dead integrated LAN.

Dude, there's a picture - it's an AGP. 😉
Apart from the fact that there were no Socket A chipsets other than AGP, at least not from VIA, IIRC.

Think that's a VIA KM400 chipset from around 2003, so anything from a Geforce 4 Ti would be somewhat period correct.
But AFAIK, you might as well get anything up to a Gf7 with AGP for a similar price, lower two digits, in an auction.

I used to have this one with WinXP:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274727064318
Not the fastest Gf7, but simply an awesome design with passive cooling including a heatpipe. May be the most power efficient AGP Geforce out there.
Whether that fit's your request or is already overkill - no idea, some of the many 3D aficionados around here will have to answer that.

But, that Compaq tower you looked at really seems a nice, compact machine, Compaq made some great gear before being gobbled up by those HP suckers. And it comes with SATA, that's a definite plus.

Apart from the GPU, you might wanna get some more DDR SDRAM for that thing, the chipset should accept 4 GB, if the mobo takes 2 GB modules, you'd be all set for SP3 if you want to install that.

Serpent Rider is right though, it's not a great price, you could easily source the parts cheaper. But, that's up to you leisure, I'd say it's a solid base.

And it comes with SATA, that's a definite plus.

It isn't. VIA had issues with SATA2/SATA3 drives. You need specific HDD/SSD to work around it.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-05-02, 05:10:

Judging by photos, motherboard might have a dead integrated LAN.

That seems to occur a lot, but how could you tell by the photos here?!?

Would be a minor nuisance, if LAN is needed. Especially since it's µATX with limited PCI slots. But, could be worked around with USB.

but how could you tell by the photos here?!?

PCI LAN.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-05-02, 05:23:

but how could you tell by the photos here?!?

PCI LAN.

Oh, well, erm, good point.
They really should have to declare that, though, at least upon request.
But, can also mean that the PCI card is gigabit while the onboard only 100. Some mobos really were cheap that way, well into the "gigabit mostly for granted" era.

Too expensive and only have decent performance for early-XP. You'd probably get a Core2 PC for half the price, add a budget/low-end graphics card from around 2008-2012 and an SB Live! and still come out cheaper.

As others have mentioned, it's not worth it. Depending on where you live, you could buy something A LOT more powerful for more or less the same amount of money.

For example, in (certain parts of) Europe, with a bit of patience you could buy a Core i5 2500K (or similar) + motherboard + RAM for ~ 50 euros. Throw in a GTX 750Ti which typically also sells for 50 euros, and you've got yourself a killer WinXP rig.

Now, judging from your eBay link, I'm guessing you're from Australia, so not sure what the availability & prices are in your neck of the woods. 😀

How many games really need WinXP ?
Some rare soundcards with XP only drivers ?
I think all you need is Win98SE PCs(500-1500MHz) and a "modern" Win7/10 PC to play all sorts of games.
These O/Ss are unnecessary middlemen: Win95, Win2000/Me, WinXP, WinVista, Win8.

I'm always pro Win98SE.
Never liked WinXP when it was released so many games stopped working.
XP was a brick wall that stopped many games.

To me Win98SE represents the mythical golden era of PC gaming.
Golden era existed around 1993-2002.
Eternal love to 1990s large cardboard boxed games.
For example in 2003 NFS Underground 1 was released in an tiny DVD plastic cover.

user33331 wrote on 2022-05-02, 06:34:

How many games really need WinXP ?
Some rare soundcards with XP only drivers ?
I think all you need is Win98SE PCs(500-1500MHz) and a "modern" Win7/10 PC to play all sorts of games.

Well, with very few exceptions, you don't really need anything except for a modern rig and some emulators, right? 😀
But that's not really the point, though, especially on the "General Old Hardware" subforum. 😉

Also, I have to disagree and I have a few very recent examples.

A month ago I started playing with my daughter Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (I know, not the best out of all the TR games... to put it mildly).
Since it was much easier (or so I thought), I've decided to give it a try on the modern rig, installing it from Steam, using the usual patches, dgVoodoo 2, etc.

Well, even after solving all the problems that were preventing the game from starting altogether, there are still intermittent visual glitches (black artifacts that appear and disappear randomly depending on the camera movement). Even worse, this game didn't have the best control in the world to start with, but on Win10 it's actually much worse (keys will sometimes respond with a delay or not at all).
There are also annoying things like sound adjustments only working when you first configure them, during gameplay, but once you restart the game, the sound level that was configured before will stop working until you again access the sound section. Bottom line, I've switched to the overkill XP rig I had, and played this game without a hitch!

Same thing with games like Far Cry: you can make it work on modern PCs, but there will always be annoying visual glitches (like water reflections not looking properly, not even with the so called "water reflection patches").

Then there is a game that is called "Switchball", a favorite game of mine from 2007. As much as I've tried, I could not get this game to run on Windows 10, it only works on Windows 7 or older.

And, yes, there's the whole issue regarding sound and EAX effects, which in period correct games will only work and sound properly on Windows XP.

I see I have if I remember correctly:
- 200MHz PentiumPro. Geforce 5500 PCI, Win98SE. (Very speed and sound sensitive old games+ISA sound card.)
- 500MHz Duron, Voodoo 3 3500 PCI. Win98SE. (Speed sensitive old games+3dfx+PCI sound card.)
- 1133MHz Pentium 3, Geforce 5900XT AGP. Win98SE. (More demanding speed sensitive old games+PCI sound card.)
+ A lot of extra parts for similar, Socket A, Pentium 4 and such PCs.

+ A lot of Win7 PCs and one Win10 PC.
If some games don't work I go back to Win98SE computers.
Never needed WinXP. It is either Win98SE or Win7.
Modern games absolutely need Win10 because of DirectX 12's requirements.

user33331 wrote:

How many games really need WinXP ?

Practically anything which has native EAX support through DirectSound3D API.
To be fair, some WIn9x games are also more convenient to run in Win NT 5.x environment.

I still think EAX and THX 3D sounds are overhyped.
I have my Cambridge SoundWorks 4.1 speakers from early 2000.
Today it must be very hard to find working compatible EAX+THX multispeaker sets.

I remember EAX worked in Win98SE.

user33331 wrote on 2022-05-02, 07:54:

I still think EAX and THX 3D sounds are overhyped.

I don't know about THX, but if you like playing stealth games like the Splinter Cell and the Thief series, having EAX greatly enhances the atmosphere.

Yes but was EAX really limited to WinXP exclusively ?
I remember Win98SE had EAX too and working compatible drivers for EAX sound cards.

user33331 wrote on 2022-05-02, 07:54:

I still think EAX and THX 3D sounds are overhyped. I have my Cambridge SoundWorks 4.1 speakers from early 2000. Today it must be […]
Show full quote

I still think EAX and THX 3D sounds are overhyped.
I have my Cambridge SoundWorks 4.1 speakers from early 2000.
Today it must be very hard to find working compatible EAX+THX multispeaker sets.

I remember EAX worked in Win98SE.

Any speaker or headphone setup will work with EAX. There isn't any specific requirement to use a 4.1 setup.

Speaker types back in early 2000 were: 4.1, 5.1, 7.1 for 3D multisound.
- 4.1 is obsolete. Not manufactured for a long time.

user33331 wrote on 2022-05-02, 08:03:

Yes but was EAX really limited to WinXP exclusively ?
I remember Win98SE had EAX too and working compatible drivers for EAX sound cards.

AFAIK, this depends on the version of EAX. It started in the Windows 98 era and continued through to XP.

There are EAX games that have XP as minimum requirements (eg Battlefield 2 which supports EAX 5).

user33331 wrote on 2022-05-02, 08:03:

Yes but was EAX really limited to WinXP exclusively ?
I remember Win98SE had EAX too and working compatible drivers for EAX sound cards.

Indeed, EAX has been around since '98. That's when the first Sound Blaster Live was introduced. You can certainly use EAX under Win98 and it works just fine.

But for playing 2004-2005 era games like Thief: Deadly Shadows and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, you're much better off with a WinXP machine. I'm not sure if these can even be installed on a Win98 system.