I'm guessing it would install but I guess the drivers for it might be a problem?

Virtualization is your best bet, 98SE doesn't even support multiple CPUs so you'll only be using half of your C2D. It will run XP tho...

virtualization sucks I ahve yet seen a good one and i've used them all..... AC 97 sound card so i guess that has 9x and ethernet cards always have 9x drivers..... I have an ati ati hd 2600 for video card... that will be the problem i guess?

If virtualization sucks for you it means your Mac sucks at doing it. On the computer in sig i have no problems running 98SE, XP 32-bit and Vista 32-bit virtual machines, all at the same time, using the crap Virtual PC. It can't do 3D graphics as the video card is emulated, but does pretty much everything else. Only gripe i have with it is that the sound stutters like crazy in XP and Vista, it can't even play a **** wav file right. In 98 it's alright, but still has the occasional hitches.

You are right, the graphics card is going to be your main issues. Also, i don't think you have a plain AC'97 codec, you have a HD audio codec which is a totally different beast. That will be pretty hard to get going under 98 too.

ummm well anyways I tried starting the win 98 setup and i got this error "The "Unable to control A20 Line" error message"

That means your motherboard is incompatible with 98.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ar...es/q73/7/13.asp maybe not?

Uh, why'd you link to it instead of actually trying it?

Its just that its kinda annoying that i'll have to make my own windows 98 boot cd just to get this to work

Himem.sys is part of the DOS setup, so you could pull it off with just a modified boot floppy (assuming you have a floppy drive, of course).

noo i don't lol thats why it sucks

I could try sysing the c:\ drive and booting from that though! good thought!

Yeah, that should work. 9x installs from HDD no problems.