I need the BBS's opinion, should I format and use Windows XP, or should I format and use 98 SE? Browser? Media Player(s)? Specs-266mh, P1mmx, 64mb ram, 4 gb
With that old of a system, reformat and go with 98 SE. Windows XP will be sluggish on that system, due to the slow processor speed and lack of memory, and 4gb really isn't enough to For your system, Windows 98 SE will be much more efficient, assuming you apply all of the patches that have been released for it. Upgrade to IE 6 with Windows Media Player 7 and Winamp3 and you're good to go.
definteley 98... i recently reformated my sister's machine, a pII350mhz with 384MB RAM. I put XP on it first but the machine bogged down so much that it became useless... it now runs fine on ME... but on a 266 I'd probably go with 98.
Windows 2000 should run ok, but I'd add more memory and a bigger hard drive. You could do both fairly cheap.
I am runnin Win2K on a Pent200 with 128M...runs pretty good as long as you dont put alot of stuff on it.. Given the choices you detail...go with 98 and then do selective upgrades (Media Player.. etc..) new version of Opera...definitely..it isnt as much of a resource hog as the others...
Firstly: Intel didn't make any P1's faster than 233Mhz, and none of the 'alternatives' had MMX, so I think something somewhere is wrong. At that speed, the Intel's were far superior, BTW. 2k is much less demanding than XP. XP runs quite a bit better if you turn off all of the 'advanced video features', which nobody ever does. I would never run XP with anything less than 64Mb RAM. That seems to be the magical point at which it begins to run well. Also, I'm pretty sure it prevents you from installing it with less than 64? Generally, XP's going to 'keep it together' much better than 98. I'd suggest installing XP, seeing if you can get it fast enough, and if not go back to 98. Before you do anything, however, make sure you download drivers and get them onto a disk. There's nothing worse than needing to, say, download drivers and finding that you can't get the modem/NIC to work.
Otto, here's the link to my cpu, http://www.affordablecomputers.com/products/6197 but it's odd since when my dad bought mine, it was $396?, more harddrive space, and mine had a removeable CdRom drive and an external A: drive. Do you think my processer is overclocked?
Definitely go with Windows 98 SE. It will run on your system better given the amount of RAM and the processor.