BleepingComputer.com: Got A Good Pc, Thinking Of Upgradeing... Is It Worth It

ok to the heart of it.
i have an HP a1310n computer thats set up as it came from the factory. thing is i would like to use it to play online videogames of the mmorp genre. one game in particular it used to play without much lag but now has taken lag to a whole new level for me.
now the processor is an AMD Athalon 64 3700+ 1.77 GHz according to system. it has 960MB of ram plus 64MB going to the onboard video.......... which obviously sucks, and a 200 GB hd.
now the motherboard will support 4GB of ram if i remove the two 512MB DDRs and replace with two 1GB DDRs.
what im thinking of doing is putting more ram in.......... dont know how much yet but at least another gigs worth, and a video card because although there is not an AGP there IS a PCIe x16 i belive empty and waiting. and of course i would like a faster processor.
my problem is that its a Socket 939 Motherboard that since been made obsolete by the new socket AMD is useing now.

so what do you guys think is the best thing...... new CPU, More RAM, VIDEO CARD or say screw it all and give it to the wife for her word processing and buy a new comp?
OMG the processor now appears to be a 2.19GHZ................. wow
any opinions would be appreciated

You're correct in saying that the Socket 939 processor is obsolete, however there are many things you can do to make your computer better. Installing more RAM would always add a benefit, the more the better especially with Vista. A video card would also help slightly, unless you play games then it is strongly suggested you install one. Your PC still has some life left in it.

Thanks for the imput. I do play games so I do think that a video card is gonna be necessary if the comp is gonna meet my needs. Thats my quandry....... do i spend the money for said video card to free up as much system memory as I can, then add ram or should i try to find a better cpu first. If i looked for the cpu im not sure what the best one i could find for the comp would be that the stock motherboard would support.

You're probably not going to be able to find a processor at Newegg for a 939 motherboard, there is an AMD Opteron processor at Tigerdirect. Remember, you can only get a processor with a socket that matches your motherboard. You should spend money on more RAM followed by a video card.

Thanks for the advice. I knew that the processor would be the hardest part of the upgrade if it was even neccessary. i had come to the conclusion that the first step should be the video card and if that helped enough then ram would be the second thing i did.

i guess ill start looking for PCIe video card with 512 to 1 gig's worth of memory. not sure which brand beyond that.... any recomendations?

and is there any need to go beyond 2 or 3 GB of ram when you plan on keeping XP on the computer?

Thanks for all the help!

Good video card brands:
EVGA
BFG
XFX
MSI

Good RAM brands:
Crucial
Kingston
Corsair
A-Data
G.Skill
GeIL
Mushkin
OCZ
Patriot

If using a 32 bit Operating System (XP Home, or 32 bit Vista), there's no need to use more than 3 GB, since the OS will not recognize more than 3.25 - 3.5GB.
Anything more, is a waste of money.

I'd get as much RAM as I could afford.
That's going to make the biggest difference.

RAM will add more to the performance right now than the video card, especially on programs such as Windows, that don't tax the video card. A good gaming PC depends on the CPU, RAM, and GPU equally. Memory is cheap these days, get as much as you can. As for the video card, you need to choose whether you want an ATI or Nvidia card. Then you need to choose what kind of card you want or need. For individual brands, Nvidia: EVGA, XFX, and ASUS for ATI: ASUS, Diamond, and Sapphire.