Best media player program for . . .

I just ran a test of Windows Media Player versus another player I have on a simple .wav file, and the file played perfectly using the 3rd party program, but it won't play without skipping and missing sections of the audio using WMP. I've never been a fan of WMP (any version), so I'm wondering what media player would be the best to use. I know that this question has probably been asked innumerable times already, but a search did not turn up any specific hits (loads of WMP complaints though), so I thought I'd solicit some opinions again for current media player software.

I'm using Windows 98fe, and the majority of the files are .wav, .mp3, .avi, .mpg or .mpeg although I'd like the capability to play other types, including divx and others. A player for both audio only and audio/video file types would be nice, although I'm not against using several different programs to play specific file types if some players work better with certain file types. I'd also prefer players that are not major resource hogs.

Any and all opinions are welcome.
Thanks.

I use winamp for mp3's and wav files.. I have found that the ver I use- 2.77, not the most recent, takes up about 5 megs of mem when it's running and needs a minimum 400hz cpu to run without being affected by other processes. I used to use it on an old 166 and a 233 and when I scrolled pages it would distort the audio track. But on my 733 I have no problems with it at all. You can still get two different versions at winamp.com.. an older one (2.81) similar to mine and a new one (3.x) that I haven't heard much about yet.

Good EQ and gain control & easy to setup playlists as well.

for Windows video media I've used WMP 6.4 exlusivley. I have tried others like Real, QT, and "the playa" that comes with DIVX downloads but none of them seem to work as well as WMP day in day out. I have had to install a load of additional codecs but once their in they seem fine.

The WMP version I have is 6.4 and I wouldn't consider using anything later from MS. The PC's I am using are either Pentium 233's or slower (P120 at home).