Currently I have:
Athlon XP 2800+ Barton 2.09Ghz
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
2x 512mb Crucial DDR 333MHz/PC2700 RAM
Sapphire Radeon X1650 PRO 256MB AGP
Yes, I know it's old as the hills but it's been fine for my usage, until recently where more and more games need SSE2 like Grid, Assassins Creed, Devil May Cry 4 etc. This is annoying as I can play Crysis, COD4, Stalker, BioShock, Oblivion etc to a level that's acceptable for me.
So basically my question is, what is the barest minimum upgrade I can perform? Obviously I need to replace my CPU and motherboard, but I want to keep my existing ram and graphics card.
Having looked through the list of CPU's that have SSE2 on Wiki, I presume an Athlon 64 or even a Sempron 64 would be ok? In which case what specific CPU would be the wisest purchase? By wisest I don't mean the fastest, but which would be the best in terms of 'bang per buck'. The same goes for motherboard.
Also what socket? 754, 939 or even AM2 (unlikely maybe)? I guess my main problem is that I'm unsure what motherboard would still be able to use my PC2700 RAM and AGP card. If I knew what would be a good/fast mobo what could still use my existing RAM & graphics card, I could probably decide what CPU to go for or at least it'd make it easier.
Clearly I'm not looking to spend a lot at all (no more than £40), so the cheaper the better and I'll most likely be buying from eBay. Performance that matches or even slightly betters my current CPU/mobo (I presume that won't be difficult) would be ideal.
Thanks for any help/info and please don't tell me to upgrade to a completely new system with a C2D processor or whatever as I do not wish to go that far.
Athlon XP 2800+ Barton 2.09Ghz
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
2x 512mb Crucial DDR 333MHz/PC2700 RAM
Sapphire Radeon X1650 PRO 256MB AGP
Yes, I know it's old as the hills but it's been fine for my usage, until recently where more and more games need SSE2 like Grid, Assassins Creed, Devil May Cry 4 etc. This is annoying as I can play Crysis, COD4, Stalker, BioShock, Oblivion etc to a level that's acceptable for me.
So basically my question is, what is the barest minimum upgrade I can perform? Obviously I need to replace my CPU and motherboard, but I want to keep my existing ram and graphics card.
Having looked through the list of CPU's that have SSE2 on Wiki, I presume an Athlon 64 or even a Sempron 64 would be ok? In which case what specific CPU would be the wisest purchase? By wisest I don't mean the fastest, but which would be the best in terms of 'bang per buck'. The same goes for motherboard.
Also what socket? 754, 939 or even AM2 (unlikely maybe)? I guess my main problem is that I'm unsure what motherboard would still be able to use my PC2700 RAM and AGP card. If I knew what would be a good/fast mobo what could still use my existing RAM & graphics card, I could probably decide what CPU to go for or at least it'd make it easier.
Clearly I'm not looking to spend a lot at all (no more than £40), so the cheaper the better and I'll most likely be buying from eBay. Performance that matches or even slightly betters my current CPU/mobo (I presume that won't be difficult) would be ideal.
Thanks for any help/info and please don't tell me to upgrade to a completely new system with a C2D processor or whatever as I do not wish to go that far.