Please tell us. There is FLIP4MAC, and maybe VLC PLAYER that you can try and use to play .AVI files. Of course I'll leave the research to see if your machine can use those.
"got into trouble"
I'm not sure what the trouble is. Maybe some advanced scripting will help if you want to flip codecs in and out but I declain to write such things and would try the solutions I noted above.
Bob
The DivX software appears to need at least a G4 power PC in order to function well according to their home page. Have you had experience with the avi issue, (not playing well with Q-time ?) i have tried the 3ivx codecs and got into trouble, then had to have the helpful folks at the Xlab site clue me in about keeping the DivX and the 3ivx separated away from each other and not in the HD Library Q-time folder at the same time.
Any thoughts on this ? (700 MHz SL PPC3 iMac, OS X 3.9 with 768 MB of SDRAM
Thanks in advance

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic