A3000 hardware

[Tenacious]

A stock A3000 with OS3.9 is great machine and very compatible with most software.  A graphics card will give you many modern abilities (good looking internet, playing most video clips) but, some games stop working.  Adding a 68060 or PPC will cost more compat. but open the possibility of MP3s, TVPaint and faster everything (030 is no dog though).  An 030 with a MasPlayer is supposed to be pretty good for MP3s.

It all depends on what you enjoy doing!

[Tenacious]

Doesn't sound like you 'must' have one.  One of the few areas that OS3.9 is improved by an accel. is the new icon format, which, on an 030 makes the system seem only a little doggy.  Sticking with the original or 1 of the enhanced icon schemes puts the pep back in though.  (OS3.9's icon format isn't unuseable with an 030, it's just not lightning fast)  A faster file system (not FFS) helps in this reguard as well.  There are many threads here concerning this.