[Off-Topic] Pentium Motherboard

["AU,SCOTT CHUONG" <sau@ucla.edu>]

After installing slink on my old 386, I salvaged a Pentium box from work
that was to be sent to the trash.  I have very little experience with
Pentium motherboards since I've only owned a 486 and 386.  The problem is
the motherboard (and ASUS motherboard)was stripped of everything except a
1.44 floppy and the chip.  Now I want to rebuild this machine so I don't
have to run slink on the 386 (sloooooow...).  My questions were:

1. It seems there's a VGA controller built into the motherboard with an
accompanying serial cable to attach to a monitor.  Does this mean I no
longer need a video card like in older 486/386 models?

2. All memory was stripped (except for what I believe is a lithium CMOS
battery).  When I tried turning it on, there's no startup seen on my
monitor.  Am I correct in assuming I need some memory for the BIOS to
load?  Or is this related to Question 1 (ie I need to purchase a video
card).

3. Looking at the ports, I noticed some 8 bit slots (no Vesa Local Bus
slots though) and some shorter ports I did not recognize.  Are these PCI
ports?

4. Additionally, there appears to a Com Port controller built into the
motherboard (like the Video question above).  Is this also a trend to
integrate serial card controllers into the motherboard now? 

I realize these are pretty amateur questions but it's been a while since
I've worked with newer hardware (lack of cashflow and time) but it would
be really nice to upgrade to a Pentium machine from the 386.

Thanks in advance,
Scott Au
sau@ucla.edu