[andrewas]

I second what jim is saying about 2 RAM sticks. Just bought that mobo mysekf, very sweet - if I can get them to deliver it. Nightmare.

At todays prices youd be as well to get a second 512 stick, rather than the hassle of changing a 512 stick for 2x256mb. Can anyone remember the performance difference for using the dual DDR interface? 30% or something? Significant anyway.

Getting back on topic, with the latest patch all versions of windows (save 95, which sucks more than you would believe) are equally bad for running Bg2 on. But 2K or XP are the best operating system for your system, so go with one of them. Theres not a lot to choose between them, but XP is more user friendly. (Dont worry, you can turn most of the user friendliness off).

If you go for a non-windows OS, WINE should be able to run BG2 excellently, but theres no advantage to go that route unless you need a *NIX OS for some reason.