hello,my question is simple:
are the latest official drivers for the v3 2000 better
than the amigamerlin or other 3rd party ones?,
or,are there any 3rd party drivers better than the
official ones?
when I say "better" I talk about speed,and,if possible,
better stability/compatibility with direct3d in directx 8.1
or higher.

specs:
amd k6-2 500,64mb ram,v3 2000 pci 16mb,
win98 (os:ms dos 7.1,gui: win 4.1) first edition

well for win 98SE the best driver for the Voodoo3 series is still AmigaMerlin 2.9, It runs all games fluid @ 1024 x 768 x 16 @ Glide and D3D and OpenGL.

games like:

StarWars EpisodeI Racer
QuakeII
Unreal
Unreal Tournament Game Of The Year Edition
Descent 3 + Descent3 Mercenary
Need For Spped 3 and 4
StarWars X-Wing Alliance
StarWars X-Wing V.S. Tie Fighter Ballance Of Power
StarWars Dark ForcesII: Jedi Knight + Mysteries of the Sith.
Wing Commander V :Prophecy
Descent2 with 3dfx Voodoo3 Glide patch , max reso for that game is 800 x 600 ;)
Carmageddon with glode patch
Carmageddon 2
Carmageddon 3 TDR 2000
Quake3

anyways all of these games should keep you buisy and happy with AmigaMerlin 2.9 and trust me there are enough games to play on a K6-2 500, I got one myself ;) it's 8 years old, and still fullfilling it's job.

ok,I'll check the amigamerlin drivers
btw,I'm happy with this computer,
(I was already happy with a pentium 133mhz 16mb
ram and 4mb monster card  before
upgrading to the current one and the v3 card),
it runs almost all the games I like,
(I don't like new games anyway,all the stuff I have
goes from the 80's up to deus ex,heretic 2 and
diablo 2,hmm,I don't think I have a pc game
newer than those,I don't remember some dates,
but I'm pretty sure),
and I run nes,snes and psx emulation too,
so I have plenty of games to be busy with :)
if only warcraft 3,jedi knight 2 and return to castle
wolfestein were playable! :(

ps: the force will be with glide,always :)

Where does one find the AmigaMerlin 2.9 drivers?  I tried to Google it but nothing came up.  Would like to try these out on my V3/K6-2 system.  Thanks

oh norries here they are:
http://www.hwsetup.it/files/download/video/3dfx/drivers/am29win9x.exe

AmigaMerlin 2.9 was only made for Win9.xx and WinME platforms only ;)

and you could alwyas try this one also:

3Dhq 1.09 beta 10    
http://www.hwsetup.it/files/download/video/3dfx/drivers/v3-w9x-1.09-beta10.exe

May The Force Be With You.

Cool thanks.  Now as far as DirectX versions go, is it best to have the older versions installed like Dx7/Dx8 or just go ahead and install the latest?

Norries GlowingBurrito, [Norries is No Worries in Australian ;) ]

Nah just go with the latest one, I'm running Win98SE on my 8 year old K6-2 500 with AM2.9 and DierectX9.0c, it runs every old Glode game out there.

my Operating system is Win98SE with Unofficial Service PAck 2.02.

and it runs like sunshine ;)

A time ago I installed a Unofficial Service PAck (i dont remember what) and it crashed the Windows98SE the problem it´s that the service pack don´t works in the windows that are not in english.
I´m from spain and here the windows it´s translated and for example the Startup Menu it´s called Menu Inicio or the Deskctop it´s called Escritorio and when I tried to install the unofficial service pack it broke all the system.

Unofficial Service Pack for 98SE is available here :
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html
There are versions for different languages, but there seems to be no spanish version yet...

for Win98SE with Un Official Service Pack 2.02 I normally use Amiga Merlin 2.9 for that Operating System.

Never had probs with it on the K6-2 500.

Now I run the same things on an Intel PentiumII MMX 350 :)
but now with a Voodoo5 5500 AGP Rev.A 2300.

At the moment I'm using Omega Drivers 1.03 for Voodoo 3/4/5. They seem to work ok.  I've used Amiga Merlin 2.9 before an they work ok. ;)

yeah I used the AmigaMerlin 2.9 because they are very well known and they always work hehe most reliable imho. though there are also the 3dHQ V1.09.00 Beta10, they are good also:

http://www.traumatic.de/pphlogger/dlcount.php?id=FalconFly&url=http://www.falconfly-central.de/downloads/v3-w9x-1.09-beta10.zip

yeah, I've had pretty good luck with both the Omega 2.9 and the 3DHQ Beta 10 drivers. Using 98SE on a PIII 450 and V3 3000 and playing games like Delta Force 1-3, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior (One of the funniest games I've ever played) and a couple of others. Should work just fine for you.