Hi.
 
I'm trying to make an old Dell Dimension 2400 suck slightly less. The case takes Micro ATX boards, but unfortunately there are no Micro ATX Socket 478 boards with PCIe. So I'm stuck with AGP for the video.
 
I want the best nVidia AGP card I can get. If money was no object, obviously I could get a 7800GS or something but I'm limiting my budget to $150 (including shipping).
 
Basically I'm looking for a good price/performance ratio, but ALSO taking into account mods which can increase performance (overclocking, unlocking pipes, etc.)
 
Here's what I've found through research so far:
 
6800 256mb:
Cheap, can unlock pipes to 16. Still not as good as a GT even after that.
 
6800GT 256mb:
Within my price range, but it seems like nobody sells them except people on eBay trying to get rid of them. I'd rather not deal with eBay since I got rid of my PayPal account. (A long story for another day...)
 
6800GS 256/512mb:
Seems less powerful than the GT but appears to cost more. (???) Couldn't find much info about whether or not it's unlockable.
 
7600GS 512mb:
Can't unlock pipes, but is not too expensive and people seem to think it overclocks well. Leaning toward this one.
 
7800GS 512mb & 6800 Ultra 256mb:
Ideal choices, but way too damn expensive.
 
What do you guys recommend? If there is another alternative that may cost slightly more, I may go with that. BTW, I already considered just buying a new board, CPU and ATX case, and I already calculated that it's out of my price range.

 
I noticed you specified Nvidia.  Eat your heart out and forget about the x850xt's and x800gto's listed here.  LOL!
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ategory=48

 
The best AGP card you can get...

 
I'm not going to lie. I want an nVidia card for one reason: I've gone through so many ATI cards over the years (9600 Pro, 9800 Pro, X800 XL, Mobility 9700, Mobility X700, Mobility X1600) that I just want a freaking change.
 
And I already stated that the 7800GS is way out of my price range. I'm all out of souls to sell to satan, so unfortunately $150 is still my limit.

 
I'm not going to lie. I want an nVidia card for one reason: I've gone through so many ATI cards over the years (9600 Pro, 9800 Pro, X800 XL, Mobility 9700, Mobility X700, Mobility X1600) that I just want a freaking change.
 
And I already stated that the 7800GS is way out of my price range. I'm all out of souls to sell to satan, so unfortunately $150 is still my limit.
Here are the Nvidia 7series AGP cards:
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ategory=48
 
My best AGP card is a Sapphire x800gto 400/980 256 bit 256DDR3.  I ordered the PCI-E version this morning for another build, but not Sapphire.  Sapphire does not honor their rebates.  Still waiting for three of mine since May.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130539

Wow people must love to flame that motherboard, check out the newegg reviews.