Hi all
GaryNH
well the obvious answer is the most stable would be Linux(why oh why do we not have a linux poser????)
other than that it looks from the posting about the subject that a stable fully patched Win2K Pro is your safest bet (and that is what I am putting my copy on)

Likewise I have a mixed Linux(mandrake)/Win2k server/Pro

I didn't go XP mainly because of the licensing procedures

I do wonder that the fancy XP GUI is more trouble than it is worth.

I experimented with something called Object Desktop that made it possible to skin win2k just like XP (in fact Object Desktop is incorporated into XP now)
I stopped using because of the huge system overhead and the fact that some programs just did not like being put in a skinned environment - quicktime would hard crash my machine.

At that time I was using an Nvidia card and threw it out for a ATI Radeon (I liked the colours better on the radeon)

So if I were you I would stick your bundle of joy on the Intel machine. No incompatibility with promise chips and AMD-although I use an AMD on my main system and is stable even when seriously overclocked.

I gibbering again

Hopefully speak tomorrow (if my system is in one piece!)

PaulC