freebsd7 on older machines

[prad]

i can't seem to boot the cdrom on older hardware (500MHz and down).
i read somewhere that the older drives aren't supported by the
installation cdrom.

i want to create a series of 'dumb terminals' which can ssh -Y into a
faster machine. if necessary i suppose i can floppy in and then install
via nfs. or i can setup the hd on another machine that does support the
install cdrom and then transfer to the older machine.

here are the specific questions:

1. do older machines work better with older versions of freebsd?
2. if i dd a hd (with freebsd) onto another hd will i have a problem
with the mbr and be unable to boot?
3. are there any other ideas for install? 

-- 
In friendship,
prad

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