Motherboard Help Pages
1. What do all the motherboard slots such
as PCI, AGP etc look like and how do I tell the difference?
The oldest slot is coloured black and is the 16bit ISA
slot pictured below (there are even older 8 bit isa slots
but not on any 486 or higher systems. It is still used today
though not on all motherboards. 
This was followed in later 486 systems by the VESA 32
bit slot sometimes called VLB (for VESA Local Bus). Basically
as shown below it is an ISA slot with a light brown bit added
on the end. This slot is not used on current systems.
This was quickly superceded by the white 32bit PCI slot
shown below which appeared in the last of the 486 series PC's
and is still current. 
The next slot is the AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) which
is almost exclusively used for graphics (as the name suggests).
It is coloured dark brown and is in common current usage.
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