A traditional PD control method and optimal control scheme are used to design a three-dimensional electrohydraulic position control servo system for a machine platform. In addition, the performance of both strategies are compared based on computer simulations. Due to the precise position requirement of the machine actuating system, the servo system accuracy and the characteristics of dynamic response should be investigated beforehand. Here numerical simulation is used to assess the influence of each parameter on the system dynamic behavior and the operational performance of the whole servo system. The data is useful in designing a high performance and robust hydraulic servo system. The simulation results also show that the trajectory tracking performance of the optimal feedback controller is better than that of the PD controller. On the other hand, the optimal control law has higher parameter sensitivity, while PD control is more robust to the parameter variation.