Well, on a more serious note:

I have a Hercules 3DProphet 8500LE and it seems to have only 2D support with the "new" XFree 4.2.0. There are some rumours that the ATI FireGL 8x00 drivers WILL work with the 8500 since they both have the same core (the R200), however I could not get them to work

Did anyone try this and had better luck?

I think DRI is more up to date although i have not checked the project lately.Take a look at http://dri.sf.net.Hope this helps.