VOGONS

High-end Pentium 4 and Athlon mobos with (provable) Universal AGP support (3.3v + 1.5v) and best for 3dfx Voodoo

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First post, by Wes1262

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Hello everyone, there are a few threads about this, but info is not as organized as it should be.

Turns out a lot of motherboards that have the right chipsets, and a non-keyed universal AGP slot, don't actually support 3.3v cards! 🙄
I myself made the mistake of buying a motherboard that should support 3.3v cards, but that actually does not.
Both the manual and Retro Web were claiming support also for 3.3v cards, but it wasn't actually the case!

So, we shall make a thorough list ourselves so we can avoid the bad ones!

Please add your findings to the thread and I will keep this post updated. Try to provide the exact revision of the motherboards you have tried.
Only include high-end systems, which are the most versatile for playing a large variety of late 90s early 00s games, from Glide to early DX9.

Tell us also which boards look like they should work but that don't actually support 3.3v cards, so we can avoid them.

■■■■■■■■■■ GOD TIER BOARDS: ■■■■■■■■■■

SiS 651 (Pentium 4 sk478, 533FSB, DDR333, on board GPU)

Same as 645DX but typically MicroATX and with on board GPU (Mirage 315 with ok-ish DX7 perf).
- Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH-P ■ (rev 4.0) ■ (card: unknown) ■ Source: havli / hw-museum.cz ■ (🏆 bonus: Hyper Threading support)
- Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH ■ (rev 3.1) ■ (card: Voodoo 3 3000) ■ Tested myself! ■ (🏆 bonus: Hyper Threading support)
- Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH ■ (rev 2.1) ■ (card: Voodoo 3 3000) ■ Tested myself! ■ (Maxdata OEM board, no Hyper Threading support)

SiS 645DX (Pentium 4 sk478, 533FSB, DDR333)

Same as 651 but Full ATX and no on board GPU.
- Gigabyte GA-8STXC ■ (rev 1.0) ■ (card: Voodoo 5 5500) ■ Source: s3thra
- Asus P4S533 ■ (rev unknown) ■ (card: Voodoo 3 3000) ■ Source: GordonFreeman
- Asus P4S533-E ■ (rev 1.04) ■ (card: various 3dfx cards) ■ Source: Gold Leader

Via KT333 + KM266 Pro (Athlon XP sk462, 333FSB, DDR333)

These boards likely require a PSU with a beefy 5v rail (30-40amp). Thoroughbred 333FSB supported. Barton 333FSB support not guaranteed.
- Asus A7V333 ■ (rev unknown) ■ Source: havli ■ (🏆 bonus: Barton@333, AGP Pro)
- Shuttle AK35 (AK35GT2R, AK35GT2) ■ (rev 2.0) ■ Source: PixelPipes ■ (🏆 bonus: Barton@333 )
- MSI KT3 Ultra ■ (rev 1.0) ■ Source: PixelPipes ■ (🏆 bonus: Barton@333 )
- Soyo KT333 UltraDragon (SY-K7VXB) ■ (rev unknown) ■ Source: Gold Leader ■ (🏆 bonus: AGP Pro)
- Epox 8K5A3(+) ■ (rev unknown) ■ Source: havli
- Epox 8K5A2(+) ■ (rev 1.2) ■ Source: Gold Leader
- Epox 8K3A+ ■ (rev 1.0 to 1.2) ■ Source: Gold Leader
- Epox 8K3A ■ (rev 1.0 to 1.2) ■ Source: Gold Leader
- ECS K7VTA3 ■ (ver 6.0) ■ Source: Joseph_Joestar

■■■■■■■■■■ DEMIGOD TIER BOARDS: ■■■■■■■■■■

SiS 645 (Pentium 4 sk478, 400FSB, DDR333)

Same as 650GX but Full ATX and no on board GPU.
- Asus P4S333 ■ (rev 1.02) ■ (card: unknown) ■ Source: havli ■ (🏆 bonus: 533FSB and 3ghz P4 support)
- MSI 645 Ultra / MS-6547 ■ (ver 1) ■ (card: unknown) ■ Source: havli

SiS 650GX (Pentium 4 sk478, 400FSB, DDR333, on board GPU)

Same as 645 but typically MicroATX and with on board GPU (Mirage 315 with ok-ish DX7 perf).

VIA P4M266A (Pentium 4 sk478, 533FSB, DDR266)

- Biostar U8668-D (Canyon CN-9V0MLV4) ■ (rev 5.0) ■ (card: ATi Rage IIC & Rage XL) ■ Source: marxveix ■ (🏆 bonus: HyperThreading)

■■■■■■■■■■ HERO TIER BOARDS: ■■■■■■■■■■

SiS 650 (Pentium 4 sk478, 400FSB, DDR266, on board GPU)
SiS 735 (Athlon XP sk462, 266FSB, DDR266)

- ECS K7S5A Pro / PCChips M830LU ■ (rev 5.0) ■ (card: unknown) ■ Source: PixelPipes

Via KT266A (Athlon XP sk462, 266FSB, DDR266)

- Biostar M7VIW-D ■ (rev 1.0) ■ (card: unknown) ■ Source: havli
- Shuttle AK32A ■ (rev unknown) ■ (card: Voodoo 3 and 5) ■ Source: bloodem

■■■■■■■■■■ OTHER BOARDS: ■■■■■■■■■■

Wall of shame

Boards with uAGP port that are actually only 1.5v
- Gigabyte GA-8ST800

TODO:
EPoX EP-8KHA VIA Apollo KT266(A) compatible Rev.A 3700
Gigabyte GA-7DPXDW-P Rev: 1.0 Rev.A 3700 compatible

Last edited by Wes1262 on 2025-02-02, 05:53. Edited 47 times in total.

Reply 1 of 18, by havli

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Personally, I have tested these boards and they are 3.3V AGP compatible (that means Voodoo5, Voodoo3, Riva TNT, etc...)

Asus P4S333 (Rev 1.02) (SiS 645)
Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH-P (Rev 4.0) (SiS 651)
MSI 645 Ultra (MS6547 Ver.1) (SiS 645)
Asus A7V333 (rev unknown) (KT333)
Epox 8K5A3+(rev unknown) (KT333)
Biostar M7VIW-D (Ver 1.0) (KT266A)

HW museum.cz - my collection of PC hardware

Reply 3 of 18, by Grem Five

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When I found my old Asus A7M266 at my parents house it still had my 3DFX Voodoo3 3000 agp in it so I would say it supports 3.3.

(edit) On the Athlon side here is a bunch of testing that was done using a 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 64MB AGP https://www.retrohardware-reviews.de/socket-a … f-the-chipsets/

Reply 4 of 18, by kagura1050

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Like you, I've been looking for a fast Universal AGP mobo for the last year (to test xorg drivers for vintage cards under Linux)...
I used to love the K7SEM (SiS730S) but switched to the M925G (P4M266) for SSE2 (and onboard LAN). I also had the 7AJA0 (KT133) but the FSB limitations were a bit of a pain.

By the way, I have a (apparently Chinese) "Rage Mobility" card, which has two notches. However, it doesn't POST with an Intel 845 or nForce3, so it's probably an "illegal" AGP1.0 card. Since I noticed this, I've been trying it out with my existing and newly acquired 4X/8X motherboards.
Naturally, most boards would not POST, but for some reason it worked on NF7-S 2.0. (After seeing this result, I tried to cut out the notch in the slot to make it a Universal AGP, but failed. I managed to get a replacement AGP slot and the repair was successful.) This may indicate that the 4X/8X motherboard potentially has 1X/2X support.

古いマシンで新しいOS(Linux/NetBSD)を動かすのが好き。
Timezone : UTC+9

Reply 5 of 18, by havli

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Wes1262 wrote on 2024-12-12, 22:58:
havli wrote on 2024-12-12, 20:55:

Thanks!!! Do you remember if any of these had HT support?
From your site: can you remember if http://hw-museum.cz/mb/36/ecs-p4s5a-dxplus actually supports 3.3v cards? I'll add it to the list in case

The Gigabyte certainly does. I am running P4 3.06 HT in there. According to the specs sheet even Prescott CPUs should be supported, but I never tried that as I see them inferior to Northwood.
Asus P4S333 runs P4 3.06 too but I have no idea if HT is supported or not as I only ran win98 there.
MSI 645 Ultra doesn't support HT and neither can run P4 3.06. The fastest P4 is 2.8/533 for this one.

As for the ECS, can't say - I never ran 3.3V card there... or at least I don't remember 😁

@kagura1050
nForce2 and nForce3 can run 3.3V AGP cards somewhat. But it is not 100% stable and I would be worried about long term reliability.

HW museum.cz - my collection of PC hardware

Reply 6 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

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I've used a Voodoo 3 with my Abit KT7A-RAID (rev. 1.0) and my ECS K7VTA3 (v6.0). Worked fine in both.

That said, I remember that my particular 1.0 revision of the KT7A didn't like 1.5V AGP cards like the Radeon 9550. It just wouldn't boot with one of those inserted. I didn't try any 1.5V cards on my K7VTA3 though, so I can't speak for that.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 7 of 18, by Wes1262

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-12-13, 09:16:

Given that the ECS K7VTA3 is KT333 and well into the Agp 4x timeline, I'd say it certainly supports 1.5v cards! Thank you for your contribution!

Reply 8 of 18, by bloodem

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Another one worth mentioning: the Shuttle “Spacewalker” AK32A (KT266A chipset), which is my go-to board for testing Voodoo 3 / Voodoo 5 with overkill CPUs (Thoroughbred Athlon XP).
The cool thing about this board (besides being rock solid stable), is that it comes with both DDR and SDR memory slots (which is pretty rare for boards based on the KT266A chipset).

2 x PLCC-68 / 4 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 1 x Skt 4 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 6 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
Current PC: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Backup: Ryzen 7 5800X3D

Reply 9 of 18, by soggi

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With AMD / socket A it's easy - all socket A motherboards with VIA chipsets up to KT333 are always compatible! Except one pitfall: The VIA KT333 CF revision is a relabeled KT400 w/o AGP 8x support. For example the ASUS A7V333 is compatible, but the ASUS A7V333-X isn't. SiS 735 and 745 are also compatible - mostly known by the ECS Elitegroup K7S5A and K7S6A.

For Intel boards it's a bit tricky as you might already know...

There's a thread with a list at the German VoodooAlert forums -> https://www.voodooalert.de/board/forum/index. … ten-mainboards/. The light blue ones are already tested to work, the red ones are still untested and the black ones are tested to DON'T work.

kind regards
soggi

Last edited by soggi on 2024-12-21, 03:40. Edited 1 time in total.

Vintage BIOSes, firmware, drivers, tools, manuals and (3dfx) game patches -> soggi's BIOS & Firmware Page

soggi.org on Twitter - inactive at the moment

Reply 10 of 18, by marxveix

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Canyon CN-9V0MLV4 works with 2xAGP, tested with ATi Rage IIC AGP and Rage XL AGP, but it is the same motherboard as this.

Already updated bios 09/22/2005-P4M266A-8235-6A6LW00HC-00
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biosta … u8668-d-rev-5-x

30+ MiniGL/OpenGL Win9x files for all Rage3 cards: Re: ATi RagePro OpenGL files

Reply 12 of 18, by Wes1262

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marxveix wrote on 2024-12-21, 02:45:

Canyon CN-9V0MLV4 works with 2xAGP, tested with ATi Rage IIC AGP and Rage XL AGP, but it is the same motherboard as this.

Already updated bios 09/22/2005-P4M266A-8235-6A6LW00HC-00
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/biosta … u8668-d-rev-5-x

Nice! Has also HT. Can you confirm me the exact revision of the board? Because there are 9 revisions...!!!

Reply 13 of 18, by Nemo1985

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You good people forgot the ECS P4S5A-DX+ (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcchips-m930dafulr), full atx, ddr333 and sdram support, no hyperthreading, universal agp, it is my test anyvideocard system, I use a 3.06ghz p4 with hyperthreading disabled because otherwise the motherboard doesn't boot (the voice in the bios is hidden).

Reply 16 of 18, by gmaverick2k

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k7t266 pro v2.0 green PCB populated with an Athlon 2000+. Also requires 4 pin atx PSU connector so not much strain on psu compared to other socket 462 motherboard I've used in the past. Haven't benchmarked yet but no issues with voodoo 3 3000 agp so far

"What's all this racket going on up here, son? You watchin' yer girl cartoons again?"

Reply 18 of 18, by gmaverick2k

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Bruno128 wrote on 2025-05-31, 16:39:
gmaverick2k wrote on 2025-05-30, 21:31:

k7t266 pro v2.0 green PCB

From what we know MS-6380 v2 doesn’t have P4 power connector. Curious about the model you got. Do you see a match?

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/?page=1& … =24&name=K7t266

Apologies, its a version 1.0 with the promise ide 3 & 4 also populated
looks like the one designated MSI K7T266 Pro-R as it doesnt have the NEC usb 2.0 populated on the motherboard

"What's all this racket going on up here, son? You watchin' yer girl cartoons again?"

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