Hello everyone, i am not sure of the exact mother board in my system but i have the write up from the manufacturer, it is a DFI p4/478/533 ATX MB NB73-EA i have no idea what any of that is but what is the best video card i can possibly run on it, it has 60GB HD, 1G memory i have no idea what size power supply it is, it was built in 02 and was a high end gaming platform back then, i am thinking its probably a 500 watt ps then? any how you opinions and info is greatly appreciated.

This is would appear to be your motherboard.
It also appears you can install a AGP 4x compatible video adapter. I like the nVidia chipset, but I will limit myself to identifing your board and let our gaming community advise of the best gaming card.
Use the drop down box in the link to view different aspects of the motherboard.

Good luck.

Anyone? i'd like to be able to put a gforce 7800 256MB possibly 512MB if this board can handle it but i dont wanna buy the card and waste my money the 512 would be nice

Any of the GX7800 card will be overkill since you motherboard is only 4X capable and the new cards are 8x. This is not problem, but it like having a V-8 in an escort. You can't use all the power available. That card appears to be $300±. Do you want to spend that much on an older computer? If you are going to build a computer that is a good plan. You can use in this computer until you build the new one.

Whoa, hold your horses there. Most modern cards are made for PCIe, and the few AGP cards still made are AGP 8X. Your motherboard has an ancient AGP 4X only port. It is possible that you can run a AGP 8X card in that slot but you won't know for sure until you try. The bandwidth and performance loss in using an AGP 4X is minimal, but they use different signaling voltages and it is uncertain if a AGP 8X cards can handle it properly. If you can't get a AGP 8X card to work you'll have to to dig up an old AGP 4X card from somewhere.

If you really wanna spend a lot on a high end card like the 7800 you might wanna get a new mobo that supports the PCIe cards. You will just have to match your proccessor socket with a compatible board. This might be more than you wanted to do, but like the others said you probably won't be able to utilize most of the newer cards in an AGP 4x bus. The GEFORCE 7800 GS 256MB AGP looks to be one of the best new AGP gfx cards according to an AnandTech article, but it would probably be faster in an AGP 8x bus(it is compatible w/ 4x according to the Newegg specs).

Allright i didn't know that, and that is what i needed to know thank you guys.

Glad you understand. We were not trying to shoot you down. That is a very nice adapter. Good choice.

Agreed. I'd go "old school" with this. A Radeon 9500pro/9700pro or 9800pro should do the trick just fine. I had a 9500 pro that ran in 4x agp for 2+ years. My friend has a 9700 pro running 4xagp for 1+year. I've seen the 9800 pro run the same (4x agp) also.

If you opt to go the nvidia route, I'd go with the agp version of the nvidia 6600gt. Bang for the buck, it's probably the best card out there for agp (maybe pci-e too!). It's got great clock speeds, great performance, and a great price (around $110). It's capable of running 4x/8x agp, so if you opt to upgrade down the road, it'll be a good card later on too!

Hope it helps!