I also ran 1.0 with just about everything maxed out. It wasn't very hard or expensive to do.
Bought a gtx 460 which was a budget card just to play it. Wasn't top of the line stuff for the time.
Funny enough for the 2.0 launch I went and upgraded the 460 to a 760. Wanted to keep up a bit.

But yeah, you just needed the proper hardware.