"The ViperII has compatibility problems with all Via chipsets and certains games don't run or suffer severe artifacts"
Not true, unless that Gigabyte VIA Apollo Pro133 motherboard (6VX-4X) and ViperII I've seen working perfectly together were fakes.
As for the artifacts in games such as Quake3 and UT, get the latest drivers and Metal driver for UT as the CD shipping ones are a bit old now and it should be fine