The Pentium 166 MMX on a socket 7 or super socket 7 motherboard is a very good all rounder. You can use certain tricks like lowering the CPU multiplier with software and disabling cache to slow the machine down to achieve 386 and 486 speeds giving pretty decent coverage. That being said, I’ve seen people achieve similar with Pentium 4s, so it may be possible on faster machines too just not so well documented/explored. The disadvantage with pentium 4s is no ISA sound card (for the most part), which is mandatory for DOS!
The other advantage with socket 7 is you can get motherboards in the ATX form factor, meaning you have a bit more leeway with using modern parts (cases and power supplies for example).
Honestly, if you only care about having the game play (as opposed to the tinkering) then I reckon modern hardware is the way to go. But… if like me you like the tinkering, it’s a very fun but expensive hobby…
