Board drivers are very important with any of the versions of Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000. Little known is that those drivers can actually be a henderence (Speed) if not loaded in the correct order with relation with other Hardware drivers. The board Manufactures are not so quick to give instructions on the proper squence of loading drivers. Intel trains there IPD's on the correct order of driver loading for optimum performance.
I have had this experience in the past where a machine will run wonderful until the Chipset drivers are loaded then take 1 minute or more to boot to windows. When I applied the training in a test I found that the same machine performed better with no change in boot time. What we as Tech's should do is demand this information from the Board Manufactures so we can pass along the best experience to our customers.