Ati have almost caught up with there radeon cards so theres always a chance that matrox can catch up or beat them nvidia cards are not the best graphics quality anyway. what happend to the days when a computer was bought and nothing was thought a bout graphics and processor speed.
Yeah the 8500 series Radeon cards are close in performance to the Geforce 3 range. But debates are (and always will be) around as to which one is actually better. I did buy a Geforce3 Ti200 for my PC at Christmas, just for the driver support and games compatability. Wish now I had just got the Radeon 8500.
As for computer and graphics speed, you are right, times have changed and so has the way we use our systems. For general purpose use, those things don't matter as much. But for playing the latest and greatest games, watching DVD movies and such, it matters alot (especially on a PC) The more powerful the hardware, the more impressive software you will see.