Thanks. I’ve been getting the parts over a month or two and was excited to get it together. I had a choice between 256 of ram and more later, or wait a few weeks to get 512. I grabbed the 256 just so I could get stuff up and running. As far as the video card, I had planned to take the AGP out of my old computer, and use it in the new one until I get a 9700 AIW in a few weeks. The old card didn’t work, (Old AGP voltage is 3.3) so I went and got a 7000 (50 bucks) to tide me over for a few weeks.
I would say that the problem was the video card; you would be much better running in software render mode than with that card. The standard card that came with my laptop has 4 times more video memory; you might just be stressing the card to the point of failure.
Ironically the 7000 was just a cheap temp card to hold me out to the 9700. I think I’ll take it back for store credit before the return date is up.
The only thing that doesn’t make sense is that my 4 year old Nvidia TNT2 ran Q3 no prob. I know the 7000 is entry level, but I would have thought it was a few generations better then my old card, that’s why I bought it as a temp card.
BTW if I forgot to mention it, the old card (AGP 3.3 v) won’t run on the new comp. (AGP 1.5 v)
Yep thought of that, thanks, that got me a few years ago. 
Gotpass, it’s the AGP version.
Are you sure it’s hardware and not software?
Try running another FPS. Better yet, download the quake 3 demo and see if you have the same problem with that. It might just be something with the program.
Eliminate the easy stuff first.
Didn’t think of trying the demo, good idea.
I remember there being a distinct moment in time when ATI controllers went from being “complete crap” to being “rather good”. The entire Rage128 line, for instance, tended to stink up the place. I’m not sure what side of that dividing line the 7000 is on. If you’re looking for an older cheap-assed card to tide you by, you may be better off with an old GeForce II.
I assume that you learned that your MB doesn’t support 3.3 V AGP when you tried to plug it in and there was a key in the way? If there wasn’t, it isn’t unheard of for a MB to support both…
In any case, I’m fairly sure that this is a video problem, either hardware or driver related.
Ok, just to toss my .02 in i think it’s actually the sound that is causing the problems. I noticed you put in a sound card and still have the problems…but i’m sticking to my guns and still staying it’s the sound in some way.
A very easy way to check this is to just play with no sound in game…if it still freezes up then it isn’t your sound card. If it doesn’t freeze up then it is somehow related to sound and i would suggest going to dxdiag (type in the run box dxdiag), it will take a a little while for it to check everything and report the correct info (you will see a progress indicator in the bottem left when it first loads). Click on the sound tab and you should see a slider labeled hardware acceleration…move it down a notch and see if the game is playable…keep doing that until either the sound is fixed or you can’t move the slider anymore. Oh, also see if it reports any problems.
Quake 3 is 2 years old (or older) so 256 mb of ram and a radeon 7k should run it acceptably…if not with all the bells and whistles.
Some other things to try. Lower the settings in game for video and audio to their absolute minimums and see if that freezes up (it will be ugly as hell, but easy to try). Maybe try going into dxdiag an lowering hardware acceleration and see if that helps the crashes. I also second the notion of trying other games and seeing if you still have the problem. If you have access to another ddr ram module you might plug that in and see how the game runs (doesn’t have to be the same speed, you are just checking for crashes, not speed).
I can’t think of anything else to suggest offhand…sometimes gaming is nirvana and other times it’s a curse. Good Luck.