Dominions II: Technical/Hardware Issues

[B0rsuk]

Hey

I have two 3.5 questions. I didn't find answers in stickies/FAQ's (or perhaps I didn't search too well ?)
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1. Is there any way I can run Dominions2 on machine without hardware acceleration ? I can run (demo) on my home machine, but I have reasonably good, if somewhat old, video card.
The situation has changed and I no longer have internet access on my own machine. Here, there's no opengl, and I don't have root password.
Is there any hope for me ?

It would make sense for Dominions2 to run without hardware acceleration. After all, it is used in 3 cases, If i remember correctly.... Title screen, laboratory (pretty!), and battles.But I tried to run Dom2 with opengl disabled and it spat out some kind of error message.
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How about Dominions3 ? I didn't buy Dom2 mostly because of annoyances associated with purchasing online (Poland). And once I decided the games IS worth buying, Dom3 was already on the horizon.
So I'm going to buy Dominions3, but will it work on machine without hardware acceleration ?
I could play it on my own machine, which is not connected to internet, but that would basically mean no multiplayer, or terribly slugish game pace.
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3. Me and my friend are interested in Dominions3. But he's not so excited about it, so we'll probably buy one copy first.
What is Dominions2's threshold when it comes to IP's/cdkey ? How many IP's can be used before copy protection kicks in ? (I presume Dom3 will use similar mechanic)