Power PC G3 as music source?

It should work, but a more powerful machine will make for faster, and potentially better sounding, lossless translations.

If you are only using a PC for music, an older G3 won't have the memory/hard drive anyway. Go spend $400 on a new pc with a nice big hard drive and newer more compatible software.

I am using a powermac g4 for this purpose and it works great.

Suggest this site
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Models.cfm?TI=4033
for possible upgrades for your G3 Mac. I am not associated in any way with OWC.

I suggest upgrading the hard drive controller using a PCI to SATA card and install a 1TB drive. That way you do not have more wires for an external drive. If you want to install Leopard upgrade the processor. Leopard has a great feature called screen sharing which will allow you to run the G3 'headless' by remoting in from another PC/MAC in the house. You would use this to control itunes for example from a remote site.

USB/Firewire sound out to an external DAC - Apogee, Benchmark - would give excellent CD sound quality.

I've used g3's, but you will appreciate a newer cpu if you can afford it. The one that I used would hang occasionally, forcing me to pull the plug ( may have been spotty ram). If you do not want to afford a new machine, at least buy some new/larger ram to help access the library...

The more I read the more I believe it would be best to just get the cheapest used mac mini I can find and dedicate it to my music. I can't do all the upgrades on the G3 myself so I'm sure the cost won't be justified. The problem is that I have no other use for the G3 and I hoped I could cheaply put it to work for this one job (and save money for a good dac). Perhaps someone else with expertise will take it off my hands.

Thanks for the ideas.

The Apple store online has refurbished Mac Minis with the same warranty as new ones for $499 at this moment. Scroll down the page.

The number available is usually very limited but different models do come up every few days

Yes, that is how I purchased my new 24" imac. A great deal. I really didn't want to spend $500 (plus 1 or 2 externals for loading and backing up) for serving my music. But, the more I think this through the more it appealing it sounds for the long run.