Don't bother with the Radeon 9500 softmod which offers:
low success rate
high graphic-corruption rates
a software hack that changes the name of the card to "9700" but DOES NOT deliver 9700 performance
(even if going from 9500-NP to 9500 "pro" level is still somewhat impressive)
For a few bucks more you can get a REAL 9500 Pro or 9600. Don't take a chance, go for the real thing right off the bat.
That said, what video card do you have now? We want to be sure you'll see a notable difference. If you've got a Radeon 8500 or GF4-TI4200 I'd say just stick it out a while.