first, is this ok?:
if (SUCCEEDED(lpd3dvb->Lock(DDLOCK_WAIT,&lpdata,NULL)))
{
//list is any array of three D3DVERTEX,
//already filled in
memcpy(lpdata,list,sizeof(D3DVERTEX) * 3);
lpd3dvb->Unlock();
}
and, if i wanted to process the above vb, with D3DVERTEX format into transformed, clipped, but unlight, except ambient, what FVF format do i need to use for the dest vb? i got really confused here, or something else is wrong...

DO NOT USE PROCESSVERTICES!!!!

Whenever you do a draw primitive call with an untransformed vb, it will do the transformations for you, in hardware if possible. You don't need to call ProcessVertices before rendering.

ProcessVertices() will always be done on the CPU, never in hardware. Even if you have a GeForce 256 or some other hardware TnL card, ProcessVertices() will not use it.

If you want to use ProcessVertices for some other reason, if you're using a D3DFVF_VERTEX format, your destination VB should have the format D3DFVF_TLVERTEX. Call ProcessVertices() with D3DVOP_CLIP | D3DVOP_LIGHT | D3DVOP_TRANSFORM.