Upgrading my PC and want some advice.

Ok let me start and say thanks for any help you all can give me. Ok I am looking to upgrade my PC. I am going to be getting a new motherboard, CPU and ram. I already have existing hard drives video audio etc. I currently have a 1Ghz AMD Thunderbird and about 512 MB PC100 ram and I belive and ASUS motherboard. Yes I know its old but hey I can run Doom 3 on that rig. I would kind of like to stay with AMD just becuase of the great performance I got from that Thunderbird chip but I am open to switching to Intel. Im looking for the best bang for my buck (bet you never heard that before) I am looking to spend around $600 or so on the new CPU motherboard and ram. I might get a new hard drive but I dont need and adivce with that and I will be getting a new power supply again no help needed their either. I have built a few systems over the years so I am comfortable putting this all together. I was just looking for some opinions on the mobo, cpu and ram. I like to play games but I am not looking for blazing rig, I also to quite a bit of audio encoding and ripping. Any ideas of a good set up?? Oh one last thing I have a copy of Windows XP Home pre service pack 1, what are my odds of bieng able ro reuse that without getting slammed with viruses and the like before I can get on windows update to get the patched or would I be better off just getting a new copy of windows?

Actualy that looks pretty good, I would have to get a few odds and ends to move to SATA (I currently have a cd rom/burner, dvd rom/cd burner Im probally gonna drop one of em and 2 internal hard drives) but other than that not bad only problem and I guess I should have mention this before but I have and AGP vid card so I would have to look for another mobo with agp since its on compatible with SATA but other than that that looks pretty awesome.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+

Mobo: Asus M2N-E

RAM: Corsair XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2-800

Video: eVGA Geforce 7600GT

Total before taxes and shipping: $480.98

When you get more money.... get another 1GB set of the Corsair XMS2

I ran into this myself a while back. Here's the skinny:

Memory - 1 gig DDR 400. $80-$120 all over town. Nothing special here. Just get CAS/CL 2 if you can. CL2 DDR400 is often just as fast if not moreso than cheap DDR800.(and overclocks better, too)

Motherboard - Socket 775 with support for the latest chips until the new ones comes out next week, that is... ASUS P5P800 SE Deluxe. This will support the newer processors and runs dual-channel DDR 400, which is plenty fast for now. This also supports dual-core processors like the 805!

Video - use your own for now. I have an ATI X850XT AGP and it is within a few FPS of a PCI-E model. Smoking fast. SATA raid, and so on. Yes, you sacrifice PCI-E for now, but when you want to get a PCI-E card, you can swap the video and motherboard and keep the CPU/Memory quite easily. The ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe would be a good choice, for instance - drop in the memory and CPU you have, plus a PCI-E card and enjoy.

Your old system, btw, is almost certainly AGP1X or 2X. Going to AGP8X will be an astounding increase, even with your older video card.

Cost:
CL2 DDR400 memory, 1 gig
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820144161
$134.99
Note - this is excellent for overclocking and has a heatsink on it already. It also is 2.6V instead of 2.8V like many of the cheaper ones.

Zalman CPU cooler - (go for the new barrel shaped one - it's much lighter and just as efficient)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118223
$63.99

CPU - 805 D. Overclock to 3.6Ghz. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116001
$115.49

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =OTC-C173T
Cheap and amazingly effective.
$75.99

Power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817103013
$43.99 - Sparkle makes some of the best power supplies on the planet. This one has a nice 120mm fan to keep noise down. 400W is plenty for now, and this is a lot less money than the 480W model.

Total: $434.45 plus shipping(about $20 or so)
Add in a case if you want - anything with a 120mm fax at the rear will do. Used is fine as well.

EDIT - all video cards come with a VGA dongle/adaptor brick these days. But try your current video first - I BET you can get a good year out of it, at which time the MB/Video swap(only) is a cheap route.

To Plekto actually it is an AGP 8X mobo amazingly enough. Like I said it may be 6 years old but it can still hang pretty good. I can run most any game at 800 x 600 Yes I know that low resolution but im only using a 17" CRT monitor.

Yeah actually I am thinking of going with the Core2Duo, not sure which mobo yet I would like to wait till they have been released for a couple months to check out reliability and stability before I get one, add on a nVidia 7600Gt or 7800GT vid card since I have seen the 7600GT for around 160 to 180 and throw on 2 gigs of ddr2 ram or what ever will go with the mobo. Then I think I am going to go ahead and get a new bigger hdd around 300 to 400 GB and a new ps to power all the new goodies. Considering how much I have been lookin I am pretty much going to end up scrapping my entire existing rig with the exception of the hard drives and go with a whole new system. I have even seen a few cases I like for not to much. I think I can still keep it all around 600 to a 100 so it will be ok. It just seems the more I look the more stuff I need. LOL But considering its been about 6 years since I last upgraded with the exception of my vid card got a good deal on a used Radeon 9200 for like 30 bucks from a friend it seems like a good time to do a complete overhaul with the low prices and all.

Suggested Changes:

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 7900GT KO Superclocked

RAM: OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800

Everything else looks good.

Actually I just realized the one I am looking at is also over clocked as well, I am going to have to do some thinking on this one. Like I said I kind of prefer not to overclock just so I can get good long term reliability.

Well that sounds better but on the reviews for the "superclocked" card were pretty bad across the board as far as the cards dying over and over again.