new AGP GFX card - but with Althon XP3000

[WelshBluebird]

Right, basically, my current radeon 9200 sucks, and since my parents won't allow me to build a new PC for xmas (god knows why, their excuse is the PC is only 3 years old - even though 3 years is ages in terms of PC hardware - and it would be impossible to change their mind lol), I'm looking for a new AGP GFX card.

My problem however, is that since I only have an Althon XP 3000+ (2.16Ghz) then theres no point me getting a top spec AGP card, as the CPU would bottleneck it.
So I've set a limit of about £90 for the card (can go up to £100), and about £30-40 for a 350W PSU (since my current one is about 200-250W I think).

I've had a look at a few, namely, the Geforce 6800GT and 7600GS, the Radeon X800XT and X850XT. They are all about the same price on ebay (between £80 and £100), so which one would work better with my current PC?
Atm my PC is the following Althon XP 3000+, 1GB DDR-333 RAM (2x512MB - max motherboard can take is 1.5GB), Radeon 9200 AIW and a crappy generic PSU that I had with the PC (Bought from time in october/november 2003).

Also, any suggestions on a PSU?

Thanks

btw - I'm hopefully gonna be able to get them to let me build my own in the summer of next year with my own money, so I don't wanna spend too much on this PC atm.

[broona]

The X800/X850XT's the best choice for less than £100, and should compliment your CPU perfectly.
As for the PSU, I've just bought a 430W Seasonic, and it's great, ample power (running an X2 4200, 7600GT, 2GB DDR, 2 HDD's, 2 DVD's, etc) and always silent, slightly over your budget at around £50, but well worth it IMO. :smashin:

[blizzard]

if u can get a 6800gt for that money then get it.
shader 3 technology where the radeon is only shader 2.0
better open gl gaming.

[blizzard]

or novatech is now doing the 7600gt agp 256mb for £130
that be even better as it does beat a 68gt in many benchmarks

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-76GTA

there u go :smashin:

[WelshBluebird]

What I may do (If i'm allowed) is buy that 7600GT, and a new PSU out of the money I have now.
Then when I get the money to, buy a Core 2 Duo E6400 and the ASrock board that lets you use AGP cards and DDR1 RAM with the Core 2 Duo.
Then when I get enough money, get DDR2 RAM and a PCI-E graphics card.
Then the final stop would be to buy a new motherboard (based on the 965 chipset or whatever) and a case, DVD drive, HDD etc.
I could then put all the compnents from this PC back into this case, and then have 2 fully working PC's.

Of course the downside to this would be, by the time I would finish, it would be about summer anyways. Also I'd have the problem of XP (since it would need to reactivate after X amount of hardware changes).
So which would be a better idea? Just get a decent GFX card now, then build a new PC (possibly with an AMD k8l CPU) in the summer, or just upgrade the bits from this PC when I get the money to do so? (thats if I'm allowed to of course - damn parents lol)

[blizzard]

new graphics card for now m8 the 3000+ is still quite capable.

[motile rod]

What I may do (If i'm allowed) is buy that 7600GT, and a new PSU out of the money I have now.
Then when I get the money to, buy a Core 2 Duo E6400 and the ASrock board that lets you use AGP cards and DDR1 RAM with the Core 2 Duo.
Then when I get enough money, get DDR2 RAM and a PCI-E graphics card.
Then the final stop would be to buy a new motherboard (based on the 965 chipset or whatever) and a case, DVD drive, HDD etc.
I could then put all the compnents from this PC back into this case, and then have 2 fully working PC's.

Of course the downside to this would be, by the time I would finish, it would be about summer anyways. Also I'd have the problem of XP (since it would need to reactivate after X amount of hardware changes).
So which would be a better idea? Just get a decent GFX card now, then build a new PC (possibly with an AMD k8l CPU) in the summer, or just upgrade the bits from this PC when I get the money to do so? (thats if I'm allowed to of course - damn parents lol)

That's a lot of changing there. You'll be better off just selling the 7600gt agp when you want to get a new motherboard and do it all in one go. Second hand cards sell very well on ebay, plus there will be newer much better pcie cards around when you want to get a new board.