does anyone know if there is any advantage to using a pro graphics card such as the Gloria 3 when working with Carrara? Or are such cards only good for Hi end programs like Maya and studioMax?

"An Example is worth Ten Thousand Words"

Carerra uses openGL, like Max and Maya. So any good OpenGL card (geForce Quadro, Oxygen, etc) will help you model. But I don't think it stresses openGL as much as Max does, so you might be fine with a regular geForce 2 or geForce 3. The Gloria III is a Quadro 2 card. I made my own Quadro 2 from a regular geForce 2 GTS (instructions are all over the web) and saved a couple of hundred dollars. You can also get "modified" geForce dirvers which enable the hidden Quadro features, if you don't want to modify your geForce board. You can find links from www.3dchipset.com, or do a Google for "soft quadro".

I use a newer ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro 32MB card with everything I do, it works pretty well with Carrara. It's not the fastest Open GL card but it gets the job done. I use it for all the features it has, but if I didn't need all those features, I would go buy a new Geforce card. Thesedays there are so many great Video Cards out there for low$$$, you can't go too wrong. If you want to spend the big bucks, then go for an Oxygen or a Wildcat.

I have a voodoo 3...is that optimal at all, or can you suggest something better within that price range?

A voodoo has such horrible openGL that it is nothing but trouble for something like this. Try a Geforce2 mx400. (not the MX200). You can find those from a large number of manufacturers, in the $80-200 (US) price range, or around $120-150 if you want the dual display version.