You know, I seem to recall something about combining them when 3.5 came out. I personally prefer 3.0, mostly because I only just got used to it when they released 3.5..
At any rate, a ranger
should be able to dual wield at 1st level.
The reason that not all the feats a ranger can get are in the class description is because the feats in the class description are gained just because you're a ranger. Unlike skills, class doesn't normally affect which feats you can get, (although weapon specialization is an exception), instead, the feats have prerequisites that seem to favor specific classes (like extra turning). The thing is, with prestige classes (specialized classes that have less max levels, and themselves have prerequisites), and multiclassing, for the most part, any character should be able to get any feat. (unless a character has Int 6 and the prereq is an int score so large that even if the character put his Ability score increases into Int every time he got one (every 4 levels) he'd still be too stupid to gain the feat. (although, with epic levels (beyond level 20), he'd still be able to get the feat eventually.))
Again, if that sounds confusing, it's because I'm insane.
Edit: Also, if you really want, i just started a campaign using the "play whenever everyone's on" method, and i'm teaching someone else how to play too, so if you want to play, gimme a shout, eh? (I play a bastardized combination of 3.0 and 3.5, though the ranger in my campaigns is the 3.5 one, just because the 3.0 one is horribly weak.)
[ December 19, 2003, 05:01: Message edited by: Lurker Above ]