Yes, the 2000/XP niche is slowly disappearing. I have a netbook that runs Win7 x32 and I run all my older programs that won't run in 64-bit. Anything else that's "just plain too old" runs fine on my P2 Thinkpad. I think my P4 and dual-core machines will be next on the auction block.

It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft fixes Win8's Metro issues later this year. If possible, I could run that on my netbook and take advantage of the backend improvements it offers.

I don't trust backwards compatibility of windows 7 (or 8 ) or modern hardware either now or in the future. That is with dx8.1 and earlier, or eax. That to me is the reason to run a windows 2000 box.

This is coming from a person running multiple OS on his main rig:
There are games which do not work right on Windows 7, but are fine on same computer running XP. To me, those that use BINK video. While in XP the videos run just fine, in 7 (I did not bother with Vista) they are played at their original resolution (small and centered, no stretching). Dunno if is a Windows or driver bug, but I suspect is Windows. Several days ago, @work, one of my workmates wanted to put a photo of his son as background. Shot at 12 Mpixels (4000x3000). Well... Win 7 with Aero did no scaling, so only part of the pic was visible. I had to put his desktop in Classic mode, it was the only way the pic was scaled to fit the desktop resolution.

I think there is. It's all in the detail. Like some games not displaying the EAX option and little things like that.

A Core 2 Duo or Athlon II should form a nice base for a XP rig.

Windows 7:
No ds3d/eax support (well, there is 3d soundback, but this is just a hack).
No directshow support.
Almost no ddraw support.
Almost no dx5-dx8 support.
Almost no MCI support.
Windows7 is better for the 2000-2008 games? Don't make me laugh.

To name the games, Homeworld 1, Cataclysm and 2, SW: KotOR 1 and 2. Probably more, but these come to mind right now.

Gamecollector wrote:

Windows 7: No ds3d/eax support (well, there is 3d soundback, but this is just a hack). No directshow support. Almost no ddraw su […]
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Windows 7:
No ds3d/eax support (well, there is 3d soundback, but this is just a hack).
No directshow support.
Almost no ddraw support.
Almost no dx5-dx8 support.
Almost no MCI support.
Windows7 is better for the 2000-2008 games? Don't make me laugh.

Apparently there is this Alchemy stuff which allows hardware acceleration through OpenAL for the games that support it though.
And yeah, Windows 7 sucks for old games. But I don't see the value in building a dedicated XP computer just for that either. Neither are a lot of DX7-9 era games speed sensitive, nor does current hardware have any problems with Windows XP... even a SSD should work with tweaking.

I found Alchemy not very user friendly. Also many games don't display the EAX option, despite Alchemy then taking over and fixing things. But I just don't trust it completely 😀

XP with a X-Fi Titanium and surround speakers simply sounds amazing...

Some of you seem to have gotten the wrong impression about what I would have used my XP machine for.

It's not so much a date range for the cutoff, it's DX9. My Win98 machine in my sig has DX8.0a as the newest version, and that's where I stop installing games on it.

My XP machine was supposed to cover the DX9 era...mostly.

So, the questions becomes, how much of the DX9 era do I really need an authentic XP machine for, vs just installing it all on Win 7 or even 8? I know the 32-bit thing will get me for some stuff since my main machine is Win8 x64, but I'll test that out as I start installing games.

senrew wrote:

Some of you seem to have gotten the wrong impression about what I would have used my XP machine for.

And you don't read posts entirely 😀
DX9 games mostly will run without problems on Win7. For full compatibility install XP and be done with it.

And the other issue is that some older video cards / old drivers simply don't exist under 7. I remember Nvidia video drivers breaking Bioshock and BF2142, so you had to roll back. Under XP not an issue, under 7...

And same goes for period correct video card. A 8800GT would be a good choice I believe. But yes many/most games will work fine under 7.

d1stortion wrote:

senrew wrote:

Some of you seem to have gotten the wrong impression about what I would have used my XP machine for.

And you don't read posts entirely 😀
DX9 games mostly will run without problems on Win7. For full compatibility install XP and be done with it.

shhh...reading posts in their entirety is optional

What i'm going to do (since I lost my original notes) is install all the games I have from that gap on my newest machine and just see what works and what doesn't. That will at least let me know where I need to focus on.

The other thing, is that most of these games are available via Steam or GOG and are almost always certified to just work. That's another route I can explore.

senrew wrote:

My Win98 machine in my sig has DX8.0a as the newest version, and that's where I stop installing games on it.

win98se can go as far as directx 9.0c (08 Dec 2006)
and winme even directx 9.0c (27 Oct 2008)
http://www.falconfly.de/directx.htm

Well, you don't need authentic PC from 2000-2005.
But you need WinXp 32-bit on a fast PC, because Vista/7/8 are crap for gaming.

d1stortion wrote:

nor does current hardware have any problems with Windows XP... even a SSD should work with tweaking.

what tweaks are needed for ssd on winxp? you mean turning off all services using hdd too much to prolong ssd life? i think that can be same hard even on win8 😉

Currently only Geforce 6xx series don't have Xp drivers. (Burn in Hell, NVidia!)
Maybe Intel will stop supporting Xp on new 7x series chipsets...
AMD is supporting Xp for all current videocards and chipsets. (Still, Catalyst programmers are *censored*.)
So, basically - you can install WinXp 32-bit on almost any desktop PC. And almost any notebook.

Geforce 6xx has xp drivers.

Well, period correct hardware for these games isn't a requirement. Compatibility is. A decent Core2Duo machine and decent video card will suffice. Toss in an X-Fi for EAX and I'm pretty covered.

I may move up to dx8.1 on my 98 machine, just to shore up the cutoff line.

Is there a point where newer video cards break dx9 stuff, or should I just go for something modern but cheap for this?

robertmo wrote:

d1stortion wrote:

nor does current hardware have any problems with Windows XP... even a SSD should work with tweaking.

what tweaks are needed for ssd on winxp? you mean turning off all services using hdd too much to prolong ssd life? i think that can be same hard even on win8 😉

Aligning the partition prior to installation, installing AHCI drivers during installation for pre-SP3 etc.