Upgrading graphics card for ASUS P5WD2-E Premium

[whl]

Please suggest what graphics (video) card I could upgrade for my ASUS P5WD2-e mobo. Currently, I have the ATI All in Wonder Radeon installed back in 2006 (not sure about this particular card's specs, but it has worked for me so far), which I use primarily for gaming; however, lately I've noticed that online games demand heftier performance from my PC, especially when playing with 6 or more opponents.

The 3.4 GHz Intel CPU sits on a socket LGA775, and my OS is Windows XP Pro. I am comfortable with the OS, and feel no need to upgrade to Windows 7 unless absolutely necessary (and with all of Windows 7's bugs worked out).

When playing standalone missions of Co. of Heroes, the Half-Life Series, the framerate per second is seamless, but there is a lag whenever I play online with my digital brothers- and sisters-in-arms or against my avowed electronic nemeses.

Additionally, my game screen shows low performance bars when playing online.

Memory is at 4x1024 MB of RAM (upgraded from 2x1024) Corsair. There is enough memory to run most, if not all, FPS and strategy games up to 2011.

My budget: $200.00

In advance, thank you all at tomshardware.com for any valuable information I could use to solve my upgrading problem.

 

[clarkjd]

What resolution does your monitor support?

 

[stingstang]

WHL, I'll take a guess and say you're running these games at 1200x1080 resolution. Windows XP is a fine operating system, and there's little need to upgrade from it, especially with such a slow processor as the one you have. A pentium D, I'll assume. While the current system you have may be adequate, both the CPU and the graphics card would need to be upgraded for any noticeable performance increase.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338&cm_re=5770-_-14-161-338-_-Product
$100 with the rebate, and it's a full-sized card, so it should stay nice and quiet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056
$119 dual-core with a proven core family. I don't suggest the 6000 series ones for 30-40 dollars cheaper because they only have 2mb of L2 cache, which is extremely low. Terrible for mutli-tasking. Keep in mind, 3mb isn't much more, but that's the best you can get for your price range.

 

[whl]

What resolution does your monitor support?[/quotemsg]

My monitor supports up to 1280 x 1024 of resolution or dpi. It is a CRT screen, which, I think, works better for me than LCD monitors, strictly because of preference.