If its 72-pin SIMMS and is a late 486 or Pentium board, then it may be able to benefit from EDO memory (assuming that it wasn't installed with it anyway - usually if the board supported it, EDO was usually fitted). This offers a slight speed advantage as its memory timings are slightly more aggressive than normal DRAM, but still nowhere near as fast as today's SDRAM and DDR DRAM.
I also doubt that it would be worth the money to upgrade compared to how cheap normal SDRAM is at the moment.
As for the board, I doubt you will be able to find an upgrade for that compaq board (certainly not at a reasonable price). Time to upgrade, and just in time for christmas too.