Apparently there are versions with this board that have problems with the regulator that delivers power to the AGP slot. You may want to read this thread.

Thank you for the link.
I remember seeing that thread before but forgot about it.
So last night I thought that I figured out the source of agp problems.
All was working fine. Snapped some pics and was thinking to post the solution, but tried 2 hours ago and thing were not fixed fixed.
So looking some more ...

Maybe you'd be best off with a PCI card? Phil's video shows that there isn't much of a performance difference between a PCI and AGP FX5500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia1zNRZE8Mg

isn't much of a performance difference

More than 50% performance penalty in games which can utilise transformation engine.

Agreed.

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In the initial post i stated revision 2.1, but it is actually 2.0

Here is what seems to have fixed, or at least improved, the AGP situation for this motherboard:

This element gets hot as high as 80C when the AGP slot is occupied.
That temperature is a lot given the small surface area.
Don't know if it was getting that hot a month ago when i acquired and tried the mobo for a first time and everything worked fine.
Strapped a heatsink - Quadro2 Pro suddenly light up again.
Notice the fan on the right side - added it but don't know if it makes a difference.
Need to check the result more thoroughly.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2021-10-30, 05:14:

isn't much of a performance difference

More than 50% performance penalty in games which can utilise transformation engine.

Maybe I misunderstood the post, but I dare to say that probably a TnL video card on an SS7 system (even with a K6-III + @ 600MHz) would not be exploited adequately and I believe that games that need TnL would find their limit in the CPU even before the PCI bus at 33MHz.
Of course I agree that compared to AGP's 66MHz, without considering the rest, the 33MHz PCI bus already reduces performance, however for a system that covers DOS game and was Win98 before I think that, without getting a headache from the FIC motherboard (certainly not among the most reliable except in later reviews), a good PCI video card can do well 😉

and I believe that games that need TnL

That includes a lot of OpenGL games though. Quake 2 can use TnL engine.

This element gets hot as high as 80C when the AGP slot is occupied.

Most likely not normal and it needs to be replaced.

I guess Quadro 2 draws too much power from the regulator ?

Replacement is on the way. Will see what happens.

I thought it is the Q2Pro, so tried other AGP cards - TNT2, GF256, Permedia, S3SomethingSomething - all caused the same instability.
It is a motherboard thing for sure.

I seem to remember fixing AGP instability back in the day by connecting AGP 3.3V supply directly to ATX socket with a thick wire underneath the board.

seems this board was factory fixed in same way in later revisions Re: FIC PA-2013 Ver 2.1 and Voodoo3 3000 AGP

2.0 and 2.1 are identical and use the same PCB - 2.0 E-O036. 2.1 is minor revision which confirms to PC99 standard (see link), while 2.0 doesn't, because ATX I/O and ATA connectors are not color coded.

Thanks for the clarification.

I would still try the 3.3 straight from ATX connector hack

I didn't see vrm with or without heatsink near agp slot on the 2.0 pcb here.
Can you point it on a picture ?