jopower

I note that the venerable Asus A7V880 mom (good to Athlon/Sempron 3200+ with PC3200 DDR RAM) isn't listed on this thread. I just acquired one and worked through the Asus (US) support site. Asus has all the goods back to Win98 there and I note all drivers list Win98 or 98SE. Hence, this piece will blaze through WIN98SE and has all the hardware bells & whistles. From http://support.asus.com Asus A7V880 Motherboard Features AMD's Athlon XP and 400 mhz PC 3200+ and all follow-up CPUs now support 400MHz FSB for increased office productivity and enhanced digital media experience. Dual-channel DDR technology doubles the bandwidth of your system memory and hence boost the system performance to out perform any memory existing solutions in the market. System bottlenecks are eliminated with balanced architecture and peak bandwidths up to 6.4GB/s. The AI NET supports Gigabit LAN by integrating the Marvell LAN controller, equipped with a unique net-diagnosing utility-- VCT (Virtual Cable Tester). The controller intelligently detects net connection status up to 100 meters from a remote location and reports the distance of bad cable. AGP8X (AGP 3.0) is the next generation VGA interface specification that enables enhanced graphics performance with high bandwidth speeds up to 2.12GB/s. With a bus of 533MHz, AGP8X is twice as fast as AGP4X. The VIA 8237 south bridge enables users to build Maximum 2 SATA hard disk as an RAID 0, 1 array, and the graphical user interface of utility provides an easy way to configure and manage disk drives or disk arrays connected. The Wi-Fi slot is specifically designed for the ASUS Wireless LAN add-on card (ex. WiFi-b™) to set up an environment for home Wireless LAN. The ASUS WiFi-b™ add-on card bundles the exclusive Software AP (Access Point) to save the extra cost of an hardware AP. In addition, the card comes with user-friendly utilities and applications that allow quick connection to notebooks, PDAs and other WLAN peripherals. The Wi-Fi slot supports the 802.11g standard for future upgrades. (Note: The WiFi-b™ card with software AP has to be purchased separately) Serial ATA is the next generation ATA specification that provides scalable performance for today and tomorrow. With up to 150MB/s data transfer rate, Serial ATA is faster than current Parallel ATA, while providing 100% software compatibility. The A7V880's S/PDIF out function turns your computer into a high-end entertainment system with digital connectivity to powerful speaker systems. The SoundMAX Digital Audio System is the industry's highest performance and most reliable audio solution for business perfessionals, audiophiles, musicians, and gamers. SoundMAX Digital Audio System can output 5.1 channel surround sound and features state-of-the-art DLS2 MIDI synthesizer with Yamaha DLSbyXG sound set, 5.1 Virtual TheaterTM and supports and major game audio technologies including Microsoft DirectXTM 8.0, Microsoft DirectSound 3D, A3D, MacroFX, ZoomFX, MultiDrive 5.1, A3D and EAX. 8 ports X USB 2.0 is the latest connectivity standard for next generation components and peripherals. Backward compatible with current USB 1.1 peripherals, USB 2.0 delivers transfer speeds up to 40 times faster at 480Mb/s, for easy connectivity and ultra-fast data ASUS C.O.P. (CPU Overheating Protection) is a hardware protection circuit that automatically shuts down the system power before temperatures go high enough to permanently damage our CPU. ASUS Q-Fan technology intelligently adjusts fan speeds according to system loading to ensure quiet, cool and efficient operation. When the system hangs due to overclocking failure, there is no need to open the case to clear the CMOS data. Just simply restart the system, the BIOS would show the previous setting and then users can amend the CPU setting again. The CrashFree BIOS 2 feature now includes the BIOS auto-recovery function in a support CD. Users can reboot their system through the support CD when a bootable disk is not available, and go through the simple BIOS auto-recovery process. ASUS motherboards now enable users to enjoy this protection feature without the need to pay for an optional ROM. With ASUS EZ Flash, you can update BIOS directly from the BIOS setup menu. No more DOS-based flash utility and bootable diskette required. Through this unique feature, A7V880 is conveniently designed to allow users to enjoy their favorite music without the need to enter Windows. ================================= Asus A7V880 Motherboard Specifications Key Specifications A7V880 Motherboard CPU Support Socket Type Socket A CPUs Supported AMD Athlon XP series to 3200+ speed Front Side Bus Speed (FSB) 400 / 333 / 266 / 200 MHz Form Factor ATX Chipsets VIA KT880, VIA VT8237 BIOS 4Mb Flash ROM, Award BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI, ASUS EZ Flash, CrashFree BIOS 2, C.P.R., MyLogo Memory Number of Slots 4 x 184-Pin DIMM Sockets Memory Type DDR SDRAM Maximum Memory 4 GB Storage 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 2 x Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1 function Integrated Features Audio ADI SoundMAX 6-channel audio CODEC Support S/PDIF out Interface Network AI NET Marvell Gigabit LAN controller supporting 10/100/1000 BASE-T Ethernet Virtual Cable Tester Net-Diagnosing Utility Expansion Slots 1 x AGP 8X 5 x PCI 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for Wireless LAN upgrade USB Max. 8 USB2.0 Ports Special Features Wake on Ring, Lan, USB, Keyboard & Mouse STR (Suspend-to-RAM) STD (Suspend-to-Disk) ASUS C.O.P. (CPU Overheating Protection) ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) ASUS MyLogo ASUS EZ Flash ASUS Q-FAN ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 ASUS Instant Music~Lite Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x Parallel 1 x Serial 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Audio I/O 1 x SPDIF out 1 x RJ45 4 x USB 2.0 Internal I/O Connectors 2 x USB 2.0 connector support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports CPU / Chassis FAN connectors Chassis Intrusion 20-pin ATX Power connector S/PDIF out Interface CD/AUX audio in Game/MIDI port connector 20 Pin Panel connector Front Panel Audio connector Dimensions (W x D) 12" x 9.6"