Looking for cheap upgrade advice

[RAndersen]

My current system consists of the following:

AMD Athlon XP 2100+ Thoroughbred 1.73GHz Socket A Processor
ASUS A7N8X NVIDIA nForce2 Motherboard
2 - CORSAIR XMS 256MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Nvidia 6600GT Video Card - AGP
Antec 400W PSU
2 HD's, DVD Drive, Etc.....

I was originally looking to upgrade just the processor to pick up some speed but the MB will only support up to an Athlon XP 2600 (no sempron's).

I'm now considering just upgrading the MB and processor but I'm wondering if it's even worth it to reuse the existing memory and video card with the new parts.

I was originally thinking of something like an AMD Athlon 64 3400 and new motherboard but I don't know if it's worth the cost or if I should just wait and upgrade everything at once?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm really just looking for better framerates from a few older games I play and I'm limited by CPU speed right now.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[novice]

Depending on your budget, one possible way to go that I am considering is:

motherboard

Processor

You should be able to use your existing ram, (provided it is dual channel capable) and even offers onboard Geforce 6100 graphics until you decide which PCI-E video card you want to upgrade to. You could probably unload your 6600GT to some other AGP user and cover half of your uprade costs. The only other concern might be your power supply, depending on which video card you choose.
This is the start of my upgrade project for my wife's system, which currently has a Sempron 2400, an MSI KT-600 mainboard and a gig of PC-3200 ram. I figure the onboard geforce 6100 graphics might even beat the FX-5500 AGP video card she has currently. Since my plan is to upgrade it and give it to my youngest son (15), he will be needing a PCI-E video card sooner rather than later. Should be quite a step up from his current PIII 866 with Geforce 4 Ti-4200 and 512 mb of PC-133 ram.

 

[AznSensation]

Wait. Save more money. Wait till prices fall down. Build a new system.

Serously, most of your stuff is outdated. I would just wait and build a whole new system (Vista capable)