ATI radeon 9200 in Gentoo
 

I am a little confused as to which drivers I can use. i know that I could download ATI's closed-source drivers, but does X.org have drivers for the card? And if so, how do I get them? I have read a lot on this, but I am confused as to which method I should use.

if you want 3d accelerated graphics then the ati binary drivers are the way to go. If you just want a desktop system with no 3d you could use the X drivers.

Thanks for the reply. Do I need to install X first? And after I emerge the drivers, all I have to do is run fglrxconfig?

yes you will need X installed first. as far as the config, look in the hardware forums on this board there are alot of radeon threads ( or just search the entire forum ). Sorry I can't help more, I'm an nvidia man myself (the only radeon I've used on linux is an old 7500 I had laying around) so I've not used fglrxconfig