still need some help with agp card....

[parlee]

so i have a 9600 pro 256 mb edition i bought off a friend for 20 bux almost a year ago... and its been time for almost a year to upgrade .. i have a 754 3700 that i just got because im kinda on a budget and pci express as of this moment is only better because they stopped producing cards on agp and SLI if they kept making agp cards itd be very very similiar... or so ive heard, prove me wrong if i am though. im looking to buy preferably an ati card cause if u go to nvidia u have to reformat? and im too lazy to do that.. my price range is somewhere in the lower 200 range... 270 max.. i have been looking at the x800xt AIW which seems to be an excellent value for the price but im wondering are there any cards that have a better price/preformence ratio that will give similar preformce to the AIW. id like to be able to run all my games (WoW, fear, doom3, CS:S, BF2,) on high or max settings at 1024 x 768... i can do that now with major lag in cs:s, only game ive tried it in, runs around 25fps and i know the card is crazy bottle necking my comp... advise

bottom line
* need good ati agp video card for under 270 bux
* want to be able to run at 1024 x 768 at high details
* will last for at least a year or 2 if im lucky
* price/preformence
* overclocking ability? maybe...

system
AMD 64 3700+ (Socket 754)
chaintech mobo... some cheap value edition with NF3 chipset
9600 pro 256 mb
1024 corsair xms 2-3-3-6
onboard sound
160 gb wd
400 watt thermaltake psu

 

[parlee]

some cards im trying to decide from...

x700 pro (i hear it overclocks like mad shiz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161147

6600gt.. good price for preformence
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220

x800gto.. prob the most expensive board i wanna get unless the x800xt aiw is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102608

at this moment im very satisfied with the x700 pro, it seems to be one of the better deals, although it only has 8 pipes it can overclock 200+ mhz... helppp meee

 

[Finny]

Well i could Suggest come cards but im in aus so i dont know the prices over der in us or where ever anyway so ill just get them from newegg.com ok

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102605

its a nice X700PRO 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP card and i had a normal x700 and it ran all latest game at minimum of 1024 @ 30fps(with max detail no aa or af)
its a really big improvement then a 9600(i allso had 1 so belive me) and get the ati 5.13 drivers theres huge open GL improvemnts for fps ect.

 

[parlee]

that one u showed me seems a bit overpriced to me at least, the main reason im lookin at that particular x700pro is because of the aftermarket cooler already installed, its a 30 dollar cooler so it makes the card an even better value, and id like to overclock it to speeds close to the 6600gt (500,1000) because its already on par with the 6600gt on stock speeds, would 256 memory over 128 be a huge difference or barely noticable? i know right now my 256 meg 9600 is actualy slower than my old 9200 128 meg...