2.4 freezes on init

Hi,
I'm getting problems booting any 2.4 kernel on my current machine, with fairly consistent results - the system boots, starts to output the usual information, but locks solid after init kicks in ("init 2.78 booting"). That line prints, the cursor moves to the next line, flashes a few times, then vanishes. The system won't respond to any input, and needs a cold reboot. Thinking a configuration issue, I've tried passing things such as "init=/bin/bash" to the kernel, which seems to go okay - the same line prints, and a simple bash prompt appears, cursor flashing and ready. I press a key... freezes again. The keystroke doesn't get echoed to the prompt.

This happens with the 2.4.3 kernel that Mandrake 8.0 defaults to (which thankfully includes a 2.2.19 as well), as well as numerous others (I believe I've tried 2.4.4, 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 in addition so far). 2.2 kernels boot and run perfectly.

I'm running with a 'classic' Athlon 700 on a Gateway 'Kadoka' motherboard (what specs they provide are here:
http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/references/motherboard/0aasn/0aa
sn2.shtml). PS/2 keyboard, USB or PS/2 mouse (tried both). 256mb PC100 RAM, Voodoo3 3000 or ASUS GeForce2 64mb GTS (again, both have been used just in case) on an AGP slot.
Filesystem is hda: hda1 hda2 <hda3 hda4 hda5 hda6 hda7>, which translates to /boot, /, /usr, /var, /home and swap, all IDE.

However, I believe the kernel image that Mandrake 8's installer uses is a 2.4 kernel, yet that works fine. Is this a configuration setting I need to toggle, or am I stuck until I switch motherboard?

Regards,

--
Jakub Burgis