Trying to be informative yet succinct :
How to find a 3D accelerator that is not a Voodoo?
For the last 25 odd years 3D accelerators have been informally referred to by the main chip (manufacturer and model) used on them (i.e. 3Dfx Voodoo 2 , ATI Rage128 , Nvidia Geforce 2 GTS) or more formally by the manufacturer and model name/number of a given 3D accelerator card that uses a given chip . Not all cards using a given chip are made equal (performance can vary due to main chip or video RAM clock speed, memory architecture, quantity or type used ). Looking for a card based on a given chip is usually a starting point .
Are there PCI or ISA Graphics cards I could put into my PC?
Excluding rare and specialized exceptions, 3D accelerator cards have existed with PCI, AGP (of which there are several non fully compatible variants), VLB (very rare, only one "mainstream" model exists AFAIK and is of limited interest except to collectors) and more recently PCI Express interfaces . Your computer must support the interface the card uses and compatible chip/card-specific drivers for your operating system of choice must exist for a given 3D accelerator card to be of any practical use .
I have no idea what am I looking for but I would like to be able to start a game like KAO the Kangaroo,
But the game tells me I do not have a 3D Accelerator.
The game's requirements are here : https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/kao-th … ngaroo/techinfo
Basically you need a 3D accelerator that supports the DirectX Direct3D API version 7.0 on a hardware level and has at least 32MB of video RAM . Direct3D is theoretically backward compatible (i.e. a Direct3D 8.0 or 9.0 capable 3D accelerator will generally work with software designed for version 7.0 , for example), but a 3D accelerator that is much newer than what software was designed for may experience issues. This varies on a case by case basis and is usually more problematic for very old games ( designed for DirectX Direct3D 5.0/6.0 or older) as certain features are either deprecated or simply implemented differently in much newer hardware .
Is an ATI Mach64 a 3D accelerator?
No . It does not support any 3D acceleration API (neither Direct3D, nor openGL , nor Glide , nor any other more obscure 3D API) .
To gain a basic understanding of 3D acceleration (in a historical context), I suggest reading the dated FAQ (form 1996) linked below . From there, it should be much easier for you to gain a grasp of current 3D acceleration tech as you will already know the basics and historical context .
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pc-hardware-faq/3dgr … cs-cards/part1/
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pc-hardware-faq/3dgr … cs-cards/part2/
I hope this helps.