Upgrading? Yes - but to what...?

[Tiny Clanger]

First of all - apologies for what will be a rambling upgrade post and thanks for anyone who can struggle through it and offer advice

At the moment I have the following setup...
AMD Athlon XP2400
ASUS A7V333
Radeon 9700 non-pro
512Mb RAM

...which has performed very well over the past couple of years and still runs games like HL2, WoW and Rome Total War at acceptable detail/framerates. However, I suspect that recent releases such as Oblivion will be beyond its' capabilities - so maybe it's time to invest in an upgrade.

Mind you, technology has moved on a pace since my last upgrade - then, the only choices were 9700 or 9800 for graphics and how fast you wanted your Athlon XP to be (...in a minute I'll say "Aye, and I remember when this were all fields tha knows"!) Hence the request for advice.

So - question one - is there any real point in just buying a faster AGP graphics card? Will there be a significant increase in performance that will allow any semblance of playability for Oblivion etc..?

If not - then question two is how should I spend my money (ideally £400-£500) on some new gizmos to drag me kicking and screaming into, if not 2006, then at least 2005.

As ever - all help, suggestions and opinions are gratefully received...

Cheers

TC

 

[Tiny Clanger]

Thanks for your input guys - greatly appreciated

Seems like it could be the 6800GS upgrade ***! Is there any difference worth mentioning between the XFX and OcUK cards (apart from a fiver in the price that is?)

Thanks again

TC