Best Video Card for a Socket A Sempron 3000+

[HopJokey]

I want to start playing PC games again such as Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft, but I don't plan on doing a full upgrade on my system for about a year. I currently have an Athlon XP 2000+, but am getting a Sempron 3000+ (Barton) on a Socket A chipset w/ DDR400 1 GB RAM. Right now I have a GeForce 2 GTS as my video card which I am upgrading so that I am able to play the games noted above. What would be the best card to get in terms of price/performance (hold me over for about a year) based on my system and the fact that I would probably be playing at resolutions 1024x768 or 800x600 (due to my monitor). Should I go with 6600GT, 9800 Pro or Something else? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[kongs]

I have a 6600GT and it performs just fine on Half-Life 2. In fact I was just playing today and I had fps all the wy up to 270 (in a dark area). Once you get that sempron you should be good to go with a 6600GT.

 

[cjbruin09]

I am assuming your board has AGP 8x right now. When you upgrade, I am assuming you will get a board with PCI-E, which would make any GPU you buy now useless. Unless you want to restrict yourself to an AGP board when you upgrade, I would get the cheapest thing that can give you the framerates you want. Check out the Half Life 2 Roundups from November in Video for some idea on what that is. A 9800 Pro should run way above what you seem to be looking for. It looks like a 9600 XT will even run without an issue.
If you dont mind restricting yourself to AGP, then 6600GT or better.

 

[Away]

I have a friend running HL2 on a plain jane 6600 (non gt). I would just get the best bang for the buck AGP card right now because in a year you will most likely be buying a new card anyways.