Increasing the performance of my computer.

I believe that mobo can support a core 2 duo (the older ones, e6600, e6700, etc). But there isn't a pci-e x16 slot on it, it has an agp port so you might need a new mobo.

lol, maybe. Just want to help.

What do you mean by performance? Gaming? Folding? Video editing?

Are you cpu bound?
Are you short on memory?
Is your hard drive a bottleneck?

As a guess, you may want a bit more performance in games. For that, you need something better than integrated video. Unfortunately, your system only supports agp, and your choices are more limited and expensive.
pick the AGP card that best fits your budget from this list: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ards-money

Pentium D is dual core, but it is not a Core 2 Duo. A Pentium D at 3ghz is not impressive at all, I don't think there is a Core 2 Duo that performs slower than that, Core 2 is much more efficient that Netburst (Pentium 4 and D), and translates to about twice the performance per gigahertz.

To answer your first question, a dedicated graphics card should free up some RAM and processor cycles and speed up your computer a tiny bit, but a Core 2 processor will do much more than that.

Ok Grimble_Crumble, but why do I see some Core 2 duo's running at 2.4 GHz or lower? As far as the graphics card, I probably will go with a mid-range graphics card, if it will help a little bit anyway. I also believe that my motherboard will support a Core 2 Duo like mentioned earleir. I checked the ASUS site and found my motherboard specs. for it and thats what it stated.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that my Pentium D CPU is running @ 3.00GHz, where Core 2 Duo's run @ 2.4GHz, which seems a lower ghz then mine. But then again, I am not what you call an expert, I just look at things and figure it out myself. But you are right, different motherboards run @ different specifications, so 2.4 GHz may be fatser then mine in the long run.

Ok cjl, I stand corrected! My appologies for doubting you folks!
I was wondering what you were talking about, when you mentioned E6600? I thought you were talking about video cards and not cpu's.
I am going to look into the proper Core 2 Duo for my motherboard, since it supports a Core 2 Duo cpu. I believe my motherboard will also support the Extreme Core Duo cpu, but thats too much power for what I do, as well as too much $. Then, with me adding a mid-range graphics card, my computer should do a lot better. Thanks for the images cjl, that was a big help! If its not too much to ask of you, would you be able to point me into the proper direction, in finding a Core 2 Duo for my motherboard? Its a P5VDC-MX Ver. 2.0 775 socket motherboard with 2 GB's of RAM, 32-bit/ X86 based. Thanks a bunch!