need help selecting gaming mobo

Suggestion for you:

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G5300LLK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682...

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Hard drive Seagate

XFX PVT73GUGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Some DVD burner, they go 30$ or so

Total $934.34 with shipping before HDD and DVD burner

thanks for the reply. before you posted i had selected the following parts. i had some similar parts to your suggestions and also had looked at those you suggested beforehand too. feel free to comment on anything. i am not locked into anything yet. the total is ~$1400. newegg actually raised the total by $10 since i made the wishlist so i was not happy about that. i am not in a big hurry and might wait for this price to drop a little. i might buy elsewhere also.


Update COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: RC-534-KKN2-GP
Item #: N82E16811119106

In Stock
$49.99 $49.99

Update GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: GA-965P-DS3
Item #: N82E16813128012

In Stock
$132.99 $132.99

Update EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Model #: 640-P2-N821-AR
Item #: N82E16814130071

In Stock
Mail-in Rebate
$389.99 $389.99

Update PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply - Retail
Model #: Silencer 610 EPS12V
Item #: N82E16817703005

In Stock
$199.99 -$30.00 Instant $169.99

Update Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6600
Item #: N82E16819115003

In Stock
$315.00 $315.00

Update Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N5K2/2G - OEM
Model #: KVR800D2N5K2/2G
Item #: N82E16820134117

In Stock
$245.99 $245.99

Update Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: ST3320620AS
Item #: N82E16822148140

$94.99
In Stock

Looks good to me.

Quick question since I am at the junction of upgrading my AGP System (with a very old Motherboard in use) or building a moderate PCI-E system.

Shouldn't the majority of his $1K build allowance be spent on the Motherboard, CPU, PSU, and Case? Rather than the GPU, RAM, etc? Since a case is the item least likely to be changed during the lifetime of the computer, followed by the PSU, Motherboard, and CPU.

I'm sure there are other factors, but I'm just not keen to them.

Mado

Almost all of the parts work together to form a successful system. You can have the best CPU in the world, but with a crappy GPU, you're not going to see the performance in games that you'd like. The GPU is more important than the CPU when it comes to games. RAM is less likely to make or break a system, but if you get cheap RAM, it will slow your system down. Definitely want to make sure you have at least 2 gigs of RAM, and make it DDR2 800 at least.