What is the extent of DirectX support in Wine? I don't like the idea of compiling WineX when I can have a *Wine* rpm installed instead? Is there a WineX rpm for Mandrake 10 in the transgaming subscribers area, I'd subscribe for that...?

Compiling WineX? If you are talking about the free version, it is almost exactly like Wine. The good parts of WineX are for subscribers only. Of course, if you are a subscriber there will be rpms for you.
Wine has some directx support, but it doesn't have much of the D3D.

I believe Wine uses DirectX 7 - that's the latest DirectX game I have played using Wine so far (haven't tried others, just speculating it's DirectX ~7)

However, if you want an interface for bringing up programs, storing wine calls to programs, etc. try XWine. Here is my setup:

- Installed Wine (did _NOT_ configure it)
- Installed WineSetupTK (did _NOT_ run it)
- Installed XWine
- Started WineSetupTK from XWine (Start-> Parameters -> Wine Configuration -> WineSetupTK)
- Used WineSetupTK (used defaults, worked perfectly) to install Wine

Voila Wine works great, can play DirectX 7 games - simple.