Need opinion on upgrades cpu

I planned on upgrading my whole computer when direct x 10 arrives..but then i was thinking, with my hardware now(except for no matter what getting the geforce 8800) alls i might have to do is swap video cards for the performance im looking for. I have 2 gigs ram ddr 400 mhz, 7800 gtx 256, amd 4000+ @ 2.67ghz, x fi platinum, 450 watt ps, s939 asus Mobo. Now i have 2 choices, spend thousands of dollars in switching to core 2 (e6600 or quad if i feel the need to spend) , 2 gigs ddr2 1000 mhz ram, gefroce 8800gtx, new motherboard, new power supply. or could go the easier route and just keep my amd 4000+ and just swap out the video card..what kind of performance difference is there between a 4000+ amd and a core 2 e6600, and does ram speeds make a huge difference in gaming( thats all this is for) id be going from 2 gigs of ddr 400mhz to ddr2 1000mhz. thanks in advance for the opinions

If, after you get your new gfx card, you have a lot of money, by all means get a core2.
With new games, dual core will be big, so if you only have a little cash left, get a new dual core AMD chip for your board.
If that will be the case, get that chip soon. AMD will EOL s939 chips soon, so prices will rise.

Wow, I wish I had those specs. I'm running a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz with a Radeon x800 AGP card, and 2 gigs PC3200 DDR 400 ram. That can handle most games I want to play at pretty good graphics settings. I wish I had the money to upgrade just to what you have now.

Overall I would say RAM and Video card are more important for performance than processor. Stick with what you have and upgrade the video card when the new one comes out and you will be in good shape for a while. Upgrade when you need to go above the maximum memory for your motherboard/OS (which could be soonish)