QEMU Windows XP SP3 VM Retro Gaming From Scratch to 3D Acceleration in 15 mins
21It is just as easy as modern Linux to setup Windows XP VM for retro gaming on Windows 10/11 host. The entire setup process can be accelerated using WHPX and VirtIO storage. It only took about 6 mins from bootable CD into the Windows XP logo animation prior to the Welcome screen for user account setup, simple & straight forward. The key difference is the 'F5' key to select the Windows ACPI HAL that is compatible with WHPX right at the beginning. Thereafter, the setup process simply breezed through to completion with 3D acceleration from VM addons. 3DMark 2006 is the last Futuremark on Windows XP, hence marked the beginning of the end of XP gaming era.
Building retro PCs for games has become a JOKE similar to "the other camp" "TRASH"Box or "JUNK-PC"em that emulate 90's PC for games. The Voodoo3s are simply CRAPS for anything on Direct3D feature level 8/9 or OpenGL 1.2+. And the similar LAUGHABLE performance of Pentium II emulation can't even manage most 3Dfx GLIDE games with native high resolution rendering, especially those with GLIDE3x API.
QEMU featuring qemu-3dfx delivers the "One Machine" gaming solution from retro to modern gaming, with retro gaming on Windows 98/XP VMs while modern Windows gaming on bare-metal. With DOSBox complement, it stretches retro gaming further back in time into the DOS era, all from the same machine, preferably laptops, the same keyboard, mouse, the possibility of game controllers and the freedom to play anytime & anywhere.