toss xp on it and see if it still does it. It should at least narrow down if it's a software or hardware issue first.

xp is totally different from 98 and so are the drivers. so if it does the same thing in xp we knows it's hardware and not the software

Okay, I've tried Windows XP and boy does it run pretty slow on this machine. I ran the Direct3D test in DxDiag and then ran 3DMark 99 seven times in a row, each time I increased the resolution or color depth. I got the same scoring results each time and the system never crashed. I think it's a software issue or driver issue. When I installed everything on XP I made sure to use the same exact driver versions as I had on 98 (though using the XP versions where applicable).

I also feel like something else might be a problem as well. To me, getting the same results each time in 3DMark points towards a bottleneck or throttling with the graphics card. Compared to results other people got with this GeForce2 GTS online with other systems, mine scored around 1700 3DMarks each test and about 4500 CPU 3DMarks.

I'm running an older revision P5A (1.04) with a k6-3+ and it is running great with an Asus V7700 gf2 GTS and windows 98. I'm using AGP driver 1.82 on this system and a very old nvidia 7.76 because this driver is running so well with a Geforce2 on a k6 system. Running an Asus V7700Ti gave me problems however (blue screens etc.) while the card is perfectly fine and performs very well on a P3B-F board.

TNT2 and Geforce1 and 2 cards CAN give problems with ss7 boards so maybe just try another brand Geforce2 agp card (if you have one).Geforce2 MX will also be fine and still fast enough as the bottleneck will still be the k6-2 @ 300mhz .
In the past i have run a lot of my cards on these boards and most of them worked fine. I tested from Riva128 to Geforce 6 and almost every Nvidia card in between. Also Matrox G200 and G400 worked fine and ofcourse every voodoo.

By trying to get the highest scores in 3dmark2000 on a k6 system i've also been running an Asus P5A/B (baby AT version of P5A) with win98se, Nvidia 7.76, agp driver Uli 2.14 (Turbo mode), Directx 7.1a and Geforce2 GTS/PRO and Geforce3 Ti200 and Ti500 cards. Never had a problem.

Try the 45.23 driver with 3dmark2000, then compare the scores using the 7.76.... will be a night and day difference!

Don't forget to use the latest bios for your board.

I went ahead an reinstalled 98se, installed directx 7.0a and and tried the 1.82 AGP driver and am running Detonator 6.31 drivers since I couldn't find the 7.76. It isn't crashing under 3DMark 2000. It's still tanking pretty hard in performance, I'm still assuming something with the CPU is just a bottleneck, it doesn't look like there's any BIOS settings that need changed. I am running latest board BIOS.

Well, the k6-2 300 is not a very fast cpu. A much faster k6-3+ clocked at 550-600mhz can barely keep up with a p2-350mhz in games so a k6-2 at half that speed and also without cache will not be fast.
It is a tiny bit faster as a p1 mmx, that's it.

A Geforce2 GTS is really overkill but is a nice graphics card.

Link to the 7.76 driver: http://www.helpjet.net/Fs-87177658-83974762-31553302.html

Thanks, from what I understand a Voodoo3 would run better in this platform. Maybe I should save my Geforce2 and my Soundblastee Live for a Slot 1/370 build and go for a different setup in this.

Would something like a Matrox Mystique plus Voodoo2 be good? Or just a single Voodoo3? Either way I'll probably get a AWE64 or similar for sound and get a better DOS compatibility and performance equal across the system.

Well, if you want to play games that support glide then voodoo is ofcourse a better option. I like 3dfx in all of my builds anyway. But the GTS can be just as good with other games or perhaps even a tiny bit better in that system. But both will be bottlenecked by that cpu.

A single voodoo2 or even a voodoo1 would be a good enough option. Voodoo1 ofcourse only for 640x480 games.

I run an FX5500 AGP on a P5A on Windows 98 and it runs perfectly stable... So nVidia did at least fix SS7 compatibility issues on later cards.

I have a FX5600 but I feel like that's too late in the game. I'd rather stick closer to true with this. The thing is that I never had a Voodoo card back in the day so I never experienced or knew much about Glide. I think I'll stick to a 2D card paired with a Voodoo2.

Can these more modern "powerhungry" cards overwhelm these older boards... thus killing some components in the long run?