Ok, so atleast in my opinion, I have a perfect redhat9.0 linux
      installation.  I have X working, I am running KDE, I have sound,
      I can listen to streaming audio, I have my pcmcia network card
      working, my apm works so that i can see a battery percentage, 
      and it's not the absolute slowest thing either, although
      at times it is a pain.

      Ok, so here's the breakdown...
         380MHZ AMD K-6 processor
         192MB RAM, 192MB SWAP
         linux 2.4.20-8, i586
         KDE 3.1
         
         It see's my ESS technology ES1969 Solo-1 sound card, irq 5
          
         It see's my Lucent Microelectronics 56k winmodem, irq 10
              (but i don't use this)
   
         It see's my ATI Technologies 3D Rage LT Pro AGP-133 video card, irq 9
             For X, it's 800x600 with 75x75 resolution, 24 depth
             The /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 in partiality is as follows...
                  Identifier "MouseO"
                  Driver "mouse"
                  Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
                  Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

                  Identifier "DevInputMice"
                  Driver "mouse"
                  Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
                  Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
 
                  Identifier "Monitor"
                  ModelName "Generic Monitor Laptop 1024x768"
                  HorizSync 31.5-48.5
                  VertRefresh 40.0-70.0
                  Option "dpms"
 
                  Identifier "VideoCard0"
                  Driver "ati"
                  BoardName "ATI Mach64"
                  VideoRam 8192
 
                  Identifier "Screen0"
                  Device "VideoCard0"
                  Monitor "Monitor"
                  DefaultDepth 24
                  SubSection "Display"
                       Depth 24
                       Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
                  EndSubSection

         It see's my PCMCIA card ethernet card, it's an ADDTRON something
             When I run "neat" under Redhat to configure my network stuff
             I can succesfully select the D-Link DE-650/Linksys Ethernet
             which uses the pcnet_cs driver on irq 10 and stuff works!