I am in a bit of a dilemma about upgrading my PC or just ditching it and building a whole new one this summer. My PC is nothing special; 2.4 ghz dual core, 2 gigs of RAM, running XP, pretty well standard stuff. However, my motherboard is quite old and does not have PCI-e slots. So right now I have a GeForce 7800 GS OC AGP card. This card does limit my ability to play games, but there's not much to upgrade to in the AGP market.

So, my question is this: is there any AGP cards I should be taking a look at? Or should I bite the bullet and build a newer PC with PCI-e support?


EDIT: Also, I forgot to say that the key game I want to play is Warhammer Online.

I cant think of many games that your current rig wont be able to manage.
apart from maybe crisis (which isnt a good game anyway, in my opinion)

But if you are going to upgrade, then unless you can get a dirt cheap AGP card it would be better to upgrade the motherboard, but of course a new mobo could mean not only a new graphics card, but also a new CPU so you looking at 3 new componants minimum.

My old comp had an Nvidia AGP 6200, it was not fun, i stopped playing PC games for 2 years or so because the new ones wouldnt run and i wasnt ready to upgrade yet. My new comp has a PCI-e Radeon HD 4850 which is wonderful(At least in comparison to what i used to have).

AGP is outdated and your life will be simpler without it, but thats just my opinion

Is your cpu Intel Core 2 Duo ??  If it is then you will need a decent CPU heat sink and a new motherboard that is easily overclockable. Lastly make sure your PSU can handle the new GPU. 

I just saw an article where a guy built a pc that cost 500 dollars and it could run crysis on high with 40 fps.  This isn't counting a monitor or a keyboard, but I'm guessing you have those already.  So for 500 bones I think it would be better just to build from scratch.

You're better off getting a new motherboard. In case you want to upgrade other parts of your PC in the not so distant future, then you will need to buy another graphic card.

"my motherboard is quite old and does not have PCI-e slots"

If you are buying a new computer with an i7  compatible mobo that means you are building an i7 now. i7 and Core2Duos and Quads run on different socket types (775 and 1366). While going for an i7 is the best performance you can gain they are still quite expensive, figuring alone the chip is 300, motherboards run atleast 200 and DDR3 is 2-3 times the cost of DDR2 youw ill be dropping atleast 600+ alone on those3 parts.

Your system right now may not be limited to just the graphics card but your CPU can be the limiting bottlle neck, The 7800GS OC is the best AGP Card on the market released by NVIDIA. ATI has some models as well that are more recent roughly release 6months after the 7800GS but run relatively close to the power of the 7800GS.

You'd honestly be best off building from scratch and selling your old system or using it as backup. The 7800GS OC still sells for about $75 used on eBay (I have one pulled in a box that I am planning to sell). If you are on a budget i'd suggest building an AMD machine or a socket 775 system; you can drop roughly 650 bucks and build a pretty decent machine where as you'd need atleast a grand to build an i7 with the bare minimum.

And if you are mainly looking to play Warhammer the $650 budget build should be up your alley.

System for 650 before Mail In Rebates, Tax and Shipping. Cost is in USD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231143 - 3 Sticks of this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130468
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380

This is assuming you are going to reuse your Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor and Operating System. Also I would not overclock with that stock cooling.

"I just saw an article where a guy built a pc that cost 500 dollars and it could run crysis on high with 40 fps.  This isn't counting a monitor or a keyboard, but I'm guessing you have those already.  So for 500 bones I think it would be better just to build from scratch."

" the key game I want to play is Warhammer Online."

I would bite the bullet and get a new rig. Unless you really want to, you shouldn't have to buy a new Case, HDD(s), CD/DVD drive(s) or RAM(if it's 800mhz or above and with decent timings), since you already have those things. This means you can put a lot of money in a good GPU, CPU and mobo. I'd recommend spending the bulk of your money on a GPU; $150-200 should get you a excellant card. Of course, you'll need a good CPU to make sure it doesn't severely bottleneck. I recommend going no lower than $150 for a CPU.

If you want me to recommend you a specific build(or pre-made PC if you're not into the whole DIY thing), post(or mail me personally) a price point, what you wanna keep from your current build(if anything), and any preferances you might have(AMD or Intel? ATI or NVIDIA? Full or Mid Tower? etc).