Budget upgrade of 3+ year old computer for gaming

[salty.dog]

I built a computer for myself about 3 years ago with the following specs:

Soyo Dragon Plus! SY-K7V motherboard
Generic case w/ 300 watt PSU
AMD Athlon XP 1600+
GeForce 2 GTS-V w/ 32MB RAM (AGP)
512 MB Crucial PC2100 RAM (2x256)
WD 40 GB HD

Clearly, it's a little outdated. I'd like to do a budget upgrade so I can play current games. If it's going to be $300+, I'll either not do it or increase the budget to enable a full upgrade (or just build a new one).

The mobo supports Palomino processors up to the XP 2100+ (along w/ Tbirds and Durons). It does not support Thoroughbred and later.

There are three obvious areas for an upgrade:

1. Graphics card (wildly out of date)
2. Processor/motherboard
3. Memory

Should I spend most of my upgrade budget on a new video card, or will the old processor, with its 266 MHZ FSB and limited horsepower, diminish the value of that upgrade?

Any overclocking possibilities with the XP1600+? I'm assuming the answer is no, from what I've read on this site already.

Is there any value in upgrading the CPU to an XP 2100+? They're kinda pricy, apparently because they've been discontinued (seems like a $60+ upgrade, even buying used on ebay).

I'm hoping that I can get away with adding 512 MB of PC2100 (~$40) and a new video card ($200 range), without touching the mobo or processor. That should give me the maximum bang for my buck, in terms of gaming performance.

Thoughts?

[MailOrderSausag]

sorry, pally sucks for oc'ing. try a cheap s754 board and chip (newark will be available sooner rather than later, and newark>everything) keep ram for now, upgrade that later with mobo, get hot new grafx card.....

also, upgrade to socket a mobile might be an option.......

but what u proabbly don't want to not do is get a 6800gt, ,or radeon 9800pro, at least.

[Drec]

you're going to need a new psu for one, a modern day video card will not be fair well with a 300w generic psu, the upgrade from a 1600+ to a 2100+ will not be noticleable....and will still be a huge bottleneck, also if you do decide to go the a64 route you will want to ditch the pc2100 for some pc3200...

it would pretty much be a complete rebuild but if you want to play newer games decently it'll be worth it.

[batboy]

It's the snowball effect here. Once you upgrade one thing, you'll need to upgrade other things too. If the budget is tight, maybe upgrade in stages.

Start out with upgrading the vid card. For gaming, that is clearly the weakest link right now. Newegg.com has a couple of 9800 Pro cards for under $140 shipped. Or try to find a cheap 6600 GT.

RAM is pretty cheap right now, so find another stick of Crucial to match what you already have or sell your PC2100 and get 2X512 of PC3200 so you'll be ready for your next system upgrade.

Now overclock what you have. Sure, your current CPU won't O/C too much, but every little bit helps. Also, once you get a better vid card, O/C that too. Eventually, you'll want to upgrade the mobo/CPU, of course.