From what I remember the computer i played on from back in the day, played all these games with no issues, and i kinda want something that will run these games still but was considered BEST of the BEST yknow at the time, just because i can not that its required or needed, I called my dad and asked him if he could remember. ( sorry this might be a lengthy reply)
mobo: unknown (i know it was a biostar)
CPU: Amd Slot A Socket 800mhz
Ram 128mb-256mb SD ram he couldn't remember exact
GPU 128mb Nvidia Diamond brand PCI graphics card (upgraded in 2001 when asherons call dark majesty expansion was released) (originally came with a nvidia geforce 2 64mb pci card )
The games i remember playing or seen my dad playing on this machine with no issues with speed long after the graphics card upgrade
Sim tower, Commander Keen Goodbye Galaxy, 7th Guest, 11th Hour, Myst, Riven, Myst III, Diablo, Diablo II, Chasm the Rift, Doom, Doom 2, Wolfenstien 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstien, American Mcgee's Alice, The Elder scrolls III morrowind, Beavis and butthead virtual stupidity, Revolt, Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, Tomb Raider, 1,2,3,4,5, Final fantasy VII,VIII, IX, Anarchy Online, City of Hereos, Asherons Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Ever Quest, The Sims, C&C Renegade, tiberian sun, red alert and red alert 2, war craft I,II,III, star craft, Quake, Quake 2 quake 3, duke nukem 3D, Need for Speed, Star, Need for Speed Porsche unleashed, Need for speed Hot pursuit, need for speed High Stakes, Seige: Tribes, Tribes 2, Star wars Jedi Outcast, Jedi Outcast II, The Sims.
and not to dog on voodoo or anything, but we never had a voodoo card, and i was able to play all those games with out issues, and we had what you could consider a budget PC back in 99, 2000, andd from what i understand 3dfx around that time i had this computer was already in nvidia's hands,
Games that worked but, ran either slow or fast. also games i'm not to worried about playing on this machine
The first Command and Conquer ran fast, Sims 2 had to do some sort of trickery to run, but very long load times but once done played just fine, Fable the lost Chapters ran only in lowest Setting, Halo ran in medium settings, Halo II ran in lowest settings, long load times, considered playable crashed a lot , Need for Speed underground, ran in lowest settings, some times hiccuped or once and a while crashed.
and going by your' guy's info, and the info i got from my dad, in order to have a similar experience, but have something that would have been considered top notch of that time, this is what i should prob go with.
CPU: Pentium 3 1.0Ghz
MOBO Socket 370 Motherboard with AGP
Ram 1 stick of 512mb of 133 sd ram
Geforce 5700 128mb