Vid card upgrade - worth it?

[Harabec]

Good evening

My current PC is a (now quite old) P4 2.4, OC'ed to 2.67GHz, 512MB RAM and a Radeon 9700 non-pro.
Motherboard is an Asus P4S533.

In HL2 I get stuttering at the higher detail settings and with AA it gets a bit slow.

Due to prices being somewhat high ($200 for a 3200+ Venice, $550 for a Leadtek 7800GT etc.) I was thinking of upgrading this system instead of buying a new one.

The plan: 2X512MB memory sticks and a good AGP card (my mobo supports only X4 AGP, is that a problem?).
What would you suggest for a video card?
If you think the CPU\mobo are crap, please suggest inexpensive upgrades.

The games I'll be playing are HL2, Doom 3, Quake 4, Morrowind (I'd love to try this on max settings) and just maybe Farcry. I'm not interested in high-res, won't go over 1024 but I DO want all the bells and whistles I can get with my setup.

Thanks

 

[Eureka]

Probably this:
Athlon 64 3800+ (I think it's about 350ish)
1GB DDR400 (add a 512 for about 50)
Asus A8N-E ($80)
x800xl refurb ($200)

Norm

 

[sundev]

Normally I would say that your best bang/buck would be an X800XL, but since you listed Doom3 AND Quake4, I would say pop for a 6800GT. You can probably get one from FS/FT for around.. $250? You would definitely be able to play all of those games at 1024x768 with AA/AF.

 

[jotosuds]

3000+ venice
9npa+ ultra
1 gig of corsair or whatever
X800pro refurb from newegg for $160

there ya go.

 

[Redox]

I upgraded my P4 2.4 system with an x850xt and was quite pleased with the results compared with the 9800 pro I was running before. Even with an x800xl you would notice a significant difference.

A 6800 GT would likely work nicely as well and won't break the bank.