from
http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx800/specs.html2nd generation F-buffer technology accelerates multi-pass pixel shader programs with unlimited instructions
infinite instructions.. that means it may be able to emulate shader 3.0 by using multipass rendering.... not as fast but all the features should be there.
if it is possible to emulate shader 3.0 in this way.. the 9800 pros may be able to do it.
did some research.. it seems that the F buffer can only be used for pixel shaders unless a major revamp in the hardware is done... but since the X-800s use "second generation" f buffers, and there is little extensive reading on the technology, we cannot throw away the fact that the X-800s might be able to emulate shader 3.0 in its totallity , but do it slower than the 6800s