while reading a old issue of Next Gen mag (lifecycle 2 vp;3 #12-12/01) I came upon a Gamecube launch special section where they go indepth into the system, and compare it to the Ps2 and Xbox. I always thought it was more powerful than the Ps2 but less than the Xbox, but they lead you to believe its the weaker of the 3.
under the breakdown of the 3 under hardware they say this about it:
"Although gamecube may lack raw horsepower, nintendo has created a cost-effective, efficiently designed piece of hardware. The games look great out of the gate, but developers may be stifled by the system's technical limitations later in its lifecycle."
oh yeah, and i forgot that alot of 1st gen Ps2 games werent anti-aliased..