Ok I've been looking and reading online a long time, and yeah I have been building computers a long time, even doing it for a living in the 90's until I got into software dev and graphic design. But hey I'm old 50 shortly and the old brain has forgotten near as much as I remember. I don't want to be paying £100's for a obsolete gpu that even a raspberry pi could run rings around these days. I havent quite got that same nostalgia that some have for Voodoo cards, or needing the absolute creme de la creme bleeding edge. but nor do I want to end up stuck with a turd like a FX5200, Savage 2 etc.

Hardware wise i will be using a late 98se supported board. Gigabyte GA_K8NS Pro Nforce 3 250 based board. With 512mb - 1.5gb DDR400 Ram (I have 3 identical Dimms), Soundblaster Audigy Player, I've owned since new. or a SB Live! 128. Ralink RT2561 based WiFi card. The board has GB Lan on it. IDE and SATA Raid. and i got all the drivers from Gigabytes site for Win 98.. oh and a 3200+ Athlon 64, how well everything is supported and will function is another matter.

I have a selection of AGP cards at the moment, but mostly pretty meh or middle of the road. of course there is the FX5200's both 128 and 256mb variants. but these are turds, were back in the day, even worse now. ATI 9200 SE.. another not great card. so dismissing these instantly.. except used to test boards... this leaves me with.. in no particular order.

MX440 64mb
FX5500 256mb DDR
A faulty (aretefacts and coloured bars) FX5600 Ultra 256mb
ATI Radeon 9550 256mb GDDR (Very nice, boxed never used except to test and reapply thermal paste) should overclock to 9600 spec easily enough.
ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 SE 128mb.. card works but no remote and well in the UK an analogue tv card is as much use as a freezer in Antartica.
FX6200A 128mb

Now sure I have newer boards kicking around, and PCI, and PCI-e, but I really want to use this motherboard, as its overkill for win 98SE. so shouldn't have any bottlenecks. Do I need to be looking for something better than what I already own GPU wise? Will a FX5500 cut it for games like thief? Im a huge RPG fan so be wanting to play stuff like baldurs gate, and others of that era. I have literally zero interest in stuff like doom, quake etc. more RPG and strategy. And TBH no interest in DOS gaming.. as this was when I was still using Amigas for my gaming. until 96 when I built my first gaming PC.

If its not something I already own, what can be had at a reasonable cost (like £20-40 $25-45) That would nip along in the kind of games I want to play @ 60fps at least. is having table fog, and palletised textures a huge deal? I know thief uses them, but can the "new dark" engined versions be played on 98? therefore bypassing that need?

Suggestions welcome, and why.. like i said my old brain has forgotten all the pros and cons of a lot of these boards.. it is like 20 yrs ago now. I want native drivers, no relying on hacked around drivers or hardware. and cost sane money. And thanks in advance for any suggestions, debate and information.