finding out if the Video Card you purchasin is compatible w/ your mobo

i bought one of the cheapest video cards (GeForce 8500 GT) from newegg for $50, waited a whole week for it, only to find out it does not fit in my Asus mobo. i was so pissed i cant even describe how mad i was. my mobo is from 2003, Asus A7N8X to be exact.

so my question is, how do i find out which new cards are still compatible? because i spent so much time researching a good and cheap video card that im starting to doubt anything new would fit inside of my mobo.

and my old card is ATI Radeon 9500pro that has smoked smell coming out of it (smelling it as i type this), so i have no clue how long it will last. it's been doing this for a lil over a week, which is why i ordered a new card.

will either of these 2 work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814145067

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133236

i looked it up and my mobo's manual said "1x AGP Pro/8X (1.5V only)

is this the best i can work with ???

also, the best card uses GDDR2 type memorry. it dont matter since its the memorry on the card right? cuz i think my mobo only uses DDR but its for ram...

anybody know a website that has AGP 8x video cards that i can purchase that are top notch for its times? i really wanna get my moneys worth for my old system and reward myself for **** up on this purchase.

I'm pretty sure a 6800XT would be a lot faster than your 9500pro. And it is agp, so I would say it would probably be a good choice.

As for running World of Warcraft at max settings, I have no idea, because I don't play it. But if your current card can, then a 6800xt most likely will be able to as well.