1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (first N64)
3. The Legend of Zelda (Nes original)
I didn't play to much of Zelda 2 on the NES but I wasn't to impressed by that. Link's Awakening I'm not sure if I played and after Ocarina of Time I never bothered with the Zelda games.
It might sound like I didn't care for the series saying that but It is one of the best RPG series I have played, I definately grew up on it with the original Zelda on the NES, Link to the past on the SNES (By far the best of the lot) and Ocarina of time was something incredible at the time due to the whole 3d thing, I was hooked good on that.
After that I kind of outgrew the series with spawn offs like Windtalker being to childish like for me.