NVIDIA would be dropping pre-Fermi support and will be removing all support for graphics processors prior to the GeForce 400 "Fermi" series.
NVIDIA will support newly-dropped GPUs on Linux through 2019, but also will come with support for new Linux kernels and X servers.
NVIDIA fixes for critical bugs, will be included in 304.* legacy releases through the end of 2017.
No further releases from the 71.86.* legacy driver series are planned.
The Linux 304.* legacy driver series is the last to support the NV4x and G7x GPUs and motherboard chipsets also support the G8x, G9x, and GT2xx GPUs, and motherboard chipsets based on them.
And this it's wonderful for Linux users.
You can read more about this here.
