You can look up the critical value from the chi-square table, under row df=3-1=2 and column chi-square(0.95). If this is for a 95% confidence interval then you should get chi-square(2, 0.975).
1.96 is Z(0.975) from normal table, it's for a 95% confidence interval. Notice confidence interval is different from confidence level.
Let me clarify. In a 95% confidence interval, your confidence level alpha=0.05, and your table value is Z(1-alpha/2)=Z(0.975) for normal random variables and chi-square(n-1, 0.975) for chi-square random variables, these are for the upper limits of the confidence intervals.