you were generally expected to have some magic items eventually in 2nd ed.

remember that the original 3.0 DR/[weapon of +X] was based off the fact that some of the higher level monsters in 2nd ed were flat-out immune to weapon damage below a + of X.

if you weren't equipped with a +3 or better weapon, good luck with that Balor (who's special defenses state it requires a +3 or better weapon to hit). heck, your standard elementals required +2 weapons to hit. these monsters might not have been all over the place but there were enough of them that it's very possible to find yourself dealing a lot of damage but not doing any progress when it comes to actually felling the beast.

all in all, the core rules as presented by the PHB are a bit less cohesive then 3.5 and generally presents less options (by this i means class-based options that affect gameplay other then combat stats) to the players, so if you don't mind a slightly higher reliance on player skill over character skill and you can muddle through some of the rules that might seem arcane compared to more modern ones, you'll probably have fun with 2nd if you enjoyed the 3rd ed experience overall.