The Tips in detail

 "You can use 3DSM2.5+ with Win95/98 but you don't want it."

As soon as you start inserting plugins you will start asking why your system crashes for unknown reasons when using 3DSM2.5+ (ie. when moving a camera) or 3DSM2.5 simply doesn't start at all after installing certain plugs. If you can afford 3DSM2.5 you certainly can afford NT as well.

With Win98SE 3DSM2.5 is running a bit more stable and I suppose same is true for WinME. 3DSM3.x is running conciderably more stable with Win98SE than 3DSM2.5 does.

Kinetix also suggests using NT for reasons of stability. Win2000 proved to be as stable running 3DSMax as NT4 used to be.