5.9 Magnum Question

I have another stupid question lol. Sometime in the past I was told that either '99 or 2000 5.9's were different from the earlier years. Something about the crank snout or maybe the balancer was different and earlier (common) parts wouldn't work. The person also told me that those newer 5.9's weren't worth having. The engine in question was out of a '00 1ton van. Is this another case of a mental midget? Or is there something to this? P.S. I went back an even 13 pages and didn't notice a topic like this. Thanks for looking.