You want to use a Radeon 9600Pro on
this Shuttle board? Generally, 8x AGP must be backwards compatible. However, Gigabyte clearly states an AGP 3.0 or better in their minimum requirements for this card. Your mainboard is 2.0. Instead of taking a chance with this one, I would look for a card which states it supports 4x/8x AGP.
Here is some good information about this topic:
What is AGP 2.0AGP 2.0 is a 1.5V AGP slot capable of 4x,2x and 1x speeds.
Rule #1: Speeds are backwards compatibleAGP Speeds are required to be backwards compatible. This means that an 8X video card MUST be able to run at 4x, 2x, or 1x speeds. However, this does NOT necessarily mean that your 8X card will run on a 4x slot.
Signalling Voltage incompatibility
Because speeds must be backwards compatible, Signalling Voltage is where incompatibilities arise. Basically: All 8x cards are 0.8v AGP 3.0 spec
8x cards will fit in 1.5V slots, and can tolerate the voltage, but will NOT run properly
4x cards can be either 1.5V or 0.8V
2x and 1x cards are either 3.3V or 1.5V
Except in the case of the 8X cards, using the wrong voltage card with the wrong motherboard can result in damage in card and board
If you install a card of incompatible voltages with the motherboard's specs, the card will NOT run
The connectors on AGP video cards are keyed in such a way that you can only install equipment that have compatible Voltage keyed connectors. Normally the key of the card determines its signal voltage. AGP 1.0 and AGP 2.0 cards using a 1.5V key will signal at 1.5 volts. However, AGP 3.0 devices can tolerate 1.5V - they won't be destroyed, they just might not work properly.
The BottomlineThe bottomline is that your 8X video card can theoretically be safely TESTED in any 1.5V motherboard for compatibility.
But if you know for a fact that your board only runs 1.5V AGP 2.0 spec and your 8X AGP 3.0 card runs only 0.8v spec, then the two should NOT be compatible one another. At the very least it will be unstable, if it runs at all. However, we've had a lot of users tell us that their AGP 8x cards work on 4x only motherboards. This is likely due to the fact that some AGP8X video cards are in fact universal 1.5V capable AGP3.0 cards that can run on either 1.5V or 0.8V (
remember, AGP speeds are backwards compatible, only voltage incompatibilies cause problems).
Good 9600Pro models that are 4x/8x AGP.
PowerColor ATI Radeon 9600 PRO Models R96A-PC3, 128Mb DDR/R96-HD3 256Mb DDR
Sapphire Atlantis 9600 Pro 128/256Mb DDR