Hrmm... I would adjust Crashy's placements just a smidgen
If necessary, I can provide links to benchmarks that will substantiate my conclusions
The Ge2 MX 400 and the Radeon LE perform almost identically. In 16bit, the MX will outperform the LE as well as the Radeon DDR in many cases. Hell, any Geforce card will destroy anything in 16bit. However, since everybody probably uses 32bit color anyway, I'll concede that the point is moot. In 32bit color and most resolutions, the MX and the LE are for all purposes equal - however, with the LE you can easily enable Hyper Z and boost your scores substantially, making it the better buy.
If you have 15 or 20 dollars more to spend, the next best bet is the Geforce 2 GTS. This card blows away the MX400 and the Radeon LE, and it performs on par with or better than the Radeon DDR in 16bit/32bit color except in insanely high resolutions - that is unless ATI sneaked in another core/clock increase and I didn't know
The Geforce2 Pro, at another 20 dollars bumped up, is also a great buy and pretty much guaranteed to beat the Radeon in everything while costing quite a bit less. If you're an image quality freak, you'll want the Radeon no matter what. Personally, I don't see much difference in image quality between Nvidia and ATI, but then again, I know people who can't distinguish between 60hz and 85hz refresh rates.
If you're looking at the low end spectrum, you probably don't even care about the Ultra, Ge3, or Radeon 8500's. If you can't afford a GTS, the MX400 or Radeon LE are your best bet. If you don't mind tinkering with your card's settings, the LE is the better buy.
"Laziness is a talent to be cultivated like any other" - Walter Slovotsky