< $500 upgrade

I'm a gamer who is looking to increase fps/overall performance ingame. For under $500 what would you suggest to be the best upgrades I could make to my rig?

Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory:
2046MB RAM
2xHard Drive:
80 GB seagate 7200rpm / Raptor 10,000rpm
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT
Monitor:
ViewSonic 19" 2ms
Sound Card:
SB X-Fi Audio [AC00]
Speakers/Headphones:
Sennheiser HD555's
Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2

what games are you playing?

Also, I'd suggest upgrading your 7950 gt to an 8 series or 9 series if you prefer Nvidia. I just upgraded my 7600gt to a 9600gt and it's worlds of difference in performance, even at DX9 (bummer I can't get DX10 on XP)

That system does look decent though, I'd hate to see you scrap some of those parts for a newer rig, that one still has some kick. Can you overclock your cpu? Idk what Amd oc's are like, but any little bit can squeeze more performance out of it. If you do OC, then make sure you have adequate cooling for your cpu.

Just curious, but is that cpu an AM2? or socket 939? and what motherboard do you have?

Well, you might consider overclocking your cpu. I don't know how much a 4400 can handle, but DFI has been known to make awesome overclocking boards. It'd be a shame to not even touch those options. If you were to oc, you could then upgrade your graphics card, cpu heatsink, and maybe psu if you don't have a powerful enough model.

Otherwise, you could just upgrade your motherboard, ram, and gpu for about $500. Otherwise, if you oc now, you can always save more money for a whole new rig.

really, thanks for the info. I guess I'll work on clockin it a little higher for now, and I'll keep my eyes open for some good deals.