This is a fun topic
My First 3D Videocard was a S3 Trio3D it supported only DirectX (but very bad.. it kinda sucked!!) then i got a Intel 740 AGP (My First AGP videocard) but many games didn't play very well with that card.
3Dfx came with Voodoo 1.. damn.. that card ROCKED!! played ever 3Dfx compatible (Glide) game very smoothly.
3Dfx Voodoo 2 came out with SLI! and i thought i must try that out.. so i bought 2 Voodoo 2's and it worked great! much better then Voodoo 1.
Then Nvidia created RIVA TNT 2 Ultra and the reviews of the card were great! much faster and runs much smoother. So i bought that card and replaced it with my 2x 3Dfx Voodoo 2. But i missed the 3Dfx compatibility (Glide). And the TNT2 was not always stable, the games "Freezed" allot and the drivers support was not good.
3Dfx came with the Voodoo 3 series but around the same time Nvidia created there first GPU, the Nvidia GeForce 256.
I bought the 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3500TV it was one of the best cards i ever had! it could do anything!! (with TV stuff i mean..) it was more stable then the Riva TNT 2 Ultra and i had my 3Dfx compatibility (Glide) back.
I Just had my Voodoo 3 3500TV and my Dad came back from Taiwan (for his work) and he gave me an Nvidia GeForce 256. I was VERY HAPPY!! the world's fastest VideoCard (at the time) in my hands. So i installed the card and tested the games.. but i was very disappointed.. almost all my games didn't work anymore.. many didn't support the card ot "Freezed" all the time. The drivers where very bad. So i switched back to my Voodoo 3 3500TV.
A few weeks later i heard Nvidia had released new drivers.. Detonators 6.50 (And i thought.. shall i try it again?) because the newer games needed a fast VideoCard and the GeForce 256 was the fastest at the moment! So i installed the videocard and installed the new drivers, and now most games DID WORK much faster and smoother before.
3Dfx annouced Voodoo 4 series and Voodoo 5 series at the same time! But also Nvidia GeForce 2 Series where released. And i really wanted that Voodoo 5 6000 card, it looked so much promising! but they did something wrong.. they wanted to sell the card by.. themselfs. (No money from other manufactures anymore) And so 3Dfx got almost broke and lost the battle against Nvidia. Nvidia bought there Rival 3Dfx and said that 3Dfx compatibility will be in the next GeForce series.
Time passed by.. and no more 3Dfx compatibility (Glide) games where developed.
GeForce 3 was released by Nvidia and had no 3Dfx compatibility but it was much faster then the GeForce 2 Series. The drivers support was much improved. And the reviews were perfect. My Dad came bad from USA (for his work) and he had suprise for me.. A Nvidia GeForce 3. i could not believe my eye's. So i replaced my Old GeForce 256 for the GeForce 3. It was really the best card i ever had, the games worked perfect, and all my friends hated me that i got a GeForce 3
I still have my "Old" Nvidia GeForce 3.. that was the best card i ever had. I had never troubles with the card or the drivers. But someday my Old GeForce 3 is gonna be replaced by the latest ATI Radeon.. because in all "my videocard years" i never had a ATI Card...
The End.
(PS. Damn.. this i a BIG story..)