It's old...got it for $5 at a yard sale. See link below. How much would it cost to get it in shape? It does have power and it said IE but wouldn't open to it.
It's the turquoise one below that says tray loading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3

You can ignore any answer from someone who simply hates Macs and tries to answer any question about them with no real knowledge, never having touched one.

I'm sure this isn't going to be your main computer. You can triple the performance by seeking out an iMac G4 at another garage sale for US$50.

If it works at all, you got your 5 dollars worth. To find out more, go to the top menu bar, the Apple menu (an Apple logo is the menu header). Click the Apple log and the first thing under it is "About This Mac". Open that and write down everything you see. Then ask your question again and include all this info.

Turquoise might be "Bondi Blue", a way of saying light blue (Bondi is the famous beach at Sidney, Australia), or it could be faded! There was an Indigo (slot-loading) which is a dark blue with a slight tint of purple, and "Blueberry", a dark blue with no purple hint.

The best identifier is processor speed. The last model of the tray-loaders (called "Rev D") was built from April to October 1999, with processor speed 333 MHz. For that model, the latest version of OS you can install is 10.3.9; RAM Type: 144 pin SO-DIMM; Minimum RAM Speed: 100 MHz; On-board RAM: 0 MB; RAM slots: 2; Maximum RAM: 512 MB.

For older iMac models, the maximum OS is still 10.3.9, so buy that version of retail install CD if you can find it. Don't worry about RAM and HDD until you get the latest version of OS. Those old install CDs are becoming more scarce each week. I had a garage sale a while back and the three old Mac computers were still there at the end of the sale, but all the OS install CDs / DVDs got snapped up right away. Someone even bought an OS X Public Beta CD! I warned him, but he insisted he knew what he wad doing.

With the installation of OS 10.3.9, you will have Safari, much better than IE. Microsoft stopped making IE for Mac OS in 2003 when it was apparent Safari had blown it out of the water in user popularity. The Mac OS version of IE was awful, and open to any and all security threats. Back in those days, even the Windows version of IE was very insecure, but PC buyers were rarely inquisitive enough to seek out a better browser.

All Power PC Macs use ATA connection for the HDD. Some people like to call that by the Western Digital proprietary term "IDE". Maximum usable HDD size for any Mac built before June of 2002 is 128 GB. You can install a larger size, but the computer cannot see or use the larger size.

For any iMac, old or new, it CAN connect to the Internet and load any Web site, but a G3 cannot play streaming videos well (such as Youtube).

Summary: Find an OS CD at another garage sale. Buy a used HDD (ATA drives are give-aways nowadays) if you can test it before paying. RAM is cheap. For the additional US$100 invested, you will have a classic iMac worth... $105.

A G3 running 8.6 is a tray-loading one that can officially run up to Mac OS 10.3.9. It likely doesn't have enough RAM to do so. Don't bother. You won't be able to run any remotely modern web browser on it and would wind up dumping more time and money than it's worth into that relic. It might be worthwhile for someone who already has parts and software laying around and knows what to do with it, but not much more than that.

And Silver, while it can connect to the internet, it's going to be pretty hard using modern websites with any browser in OS9 or even 10.3.9. Anything more complex than Craigslist will choke it, not render properly, or both.

There's hope for it as a toy, that's about it

A computer that old will not support any modern browser or screen resolution needed for the internet