2D desktop quality from best to worst:
Matrox, ATI, nVidia. nVidia has the worst track record for 2D. Powercolor has been bad from time to time as well.
If 2D is your main concern and you want some decent gaming, go ATI Retail and don't look back. nVidia has improved on average, but if you go ATI retail you're
100% certain to get sharp 2D quality - something you might or might not get with an nVidia card.
nVidia fanatics (word chosen on purpose) don't get all huffy... you know that nVidia has a bad track record for 2D - or at least the MFRs of nVidia cards did anyways. Most cards from the GF4 series finally showed marked improvement, but you're still *safer* with ATI on this one.
If you're not a big gamer, the Matrox P650 card is about your price range but won't perform better than a Radeon 8500LE or so... I wouldn't go that route if you're serious about gaming - it's hard to justify the price tag when you can get an ATI card for much less and it'll STILL do multi-monitors. (Matrox is still king of 2D and multi-monitor. If you didn't say "gaming" I'd recommend Matrox and nothing else.)
If you insist on going nVidia, be sure to buy from a store with a liberal return policy should it not be quality enough for you.
That's my two bits.
