3DMark03 tests your system's "readiness" for DX9. Obviously a GF3 will not cut it. UT2k3 and Doom III are DX8 games, not DX9... If you notice the scores, you are practically required to have a DX9 board (Radeon 9500 or better) in order to get some decent scores. 3DMark03 will determine how well your system will do in the future, obviously a 1600+ and GF3 offers very little hope for a game like Doom IV should such a thing ever exist...other than that the benchmark is very valid and practically required to better reveal the strengths of current gaming systems as 3DMark2k1 scores were getting a little out of hand @ 15000+. When before a Ti 4600 could compete with a 9500 Pro, a non Pro 9500 destroys a heavily overclocked Ti 4600. Its the future of our gaming systems, the R300 Radeon 9700/9500 series and the NV30 GeForce FX are the first to give us a sneak peak at what the future of games has in store for us. Futuremark had to make 3DMark03 very very very taxing on systems today, because chances are by the time the NV35/R400 are available, hardware will be destroying the benchmark and rap!ng it without mercy.
3DMark03 does have a chance of saving the GeForce FX, as there is a possability that the NV30 could destroy the R300 in the benchmark, especially at the default resolution/settings where its lower memory bandwidth wouldn't strangle its performance...