We have been informed by ATI that the information we received about an incompatibility is wrong. Microsoft pulled and re-released DX 9.0a for some other reason which could not be verified as of yet. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and did not intent to harm any company's reputation in any way. Update: Microsoft has re-enabled the download: here. The release date now is 3/26/2003. A quick comparison using DXDIAG did not reveal any changes.
Original Post: We have learned from a Microsoft representative, who works as a premier support member at Microsoft Germany, that DirectX 9.0a was removed because of an incompatibility with ATI Catalyst 03.1 drivers. Catalyst drivers 03.2 were unaffected, Wenzel said. He pointed out that there were still some minor bugs bud did not want to comment any further. Catalyst 03.1 drivers are still pretty popular because they perform better and allow Counter-Strike fans to play the game. Catalyst 03.2 introduced a show stopper bug with Counter-Strike.