nothing wrong with ATi chipsets, they kinda rule since they don't need drivers to function, they just work and no driver needed for them
My Athlon64 X2 4400+ system has the ASUS A8R32 MVP Deluxe Motherboard with ATi RD580 CrossFire XPress 3200 chipset, it needs no driver to function and thereby has no driver to function it just works they way every other chipset should, driverless
It works great with Win2K pro as XP Pro versions no problems as all. since I have it I know what it is capable of and really it offer alot like a normal SMP system would too, it's great for running a game and running another application at once without a hitch, about the ram, I would advice 2x 1GB for gaming at Ultra High settings @ 1600 x 1200 or greater.
with many games 1GB ram is just to less in cases that are greater than a 1600 x 1200 setting.
It's a nice thing to play around with a X1900 CrossFire Edition can be added for CrossFire mode too, anyways a single X1900 XTX and a VoodooMAC 5500 PCI as VGA2 backs everything up just fine.
Haven't used it much the last few weeks , my CRT Died oh well not too shabby it did serve me for like 10 years.
Had plans of selling it dunno why, since I make more use of 3dfx cards instead of it's mighty gear in it, dunno If I would really sell, just had a few depressfull times, just don't want to do the wrong thing, maybe selling it isn't such a good idea afterall, dunno what to do really.
But to get back to the point, if you don't like ATi go for a Nvidia setup thier drivers rock and the cards a very basic to config, as where with ATi cards they expect more care while installing a new driver, you would have to remove all the old drivers as WDM drivers to get the greatest advantage out of it's newer drivers, I advise Omega drivers for ATi cards, since they have better Imagequallity and are faster in games instead of 3D Mark which is really none of importance, it's the applications you need it for hehe, my way of thinking.