Hello!

I am really starting to notice the slow down because of the age of my PC and, as a result, I am thinking of getting a new motherboard, CPU and whatever else I might need (new video card because of going to PCI-E, etc). I am looking for advice on what gives the most "bang for the buck". Here is my current system:

CPU: Intel PIV 3.2 Ghz with HT
RAM: 2 GB SDRAM

I am currently running a poor Nvidia 7600GS with 512 MB because my older (and more powerful Nvidia card) decided to give up the ghost. I did not want to spend a lot of money on a video card until upgrading the motherboard so I was not locked into an AGP card.

Frankly, I have been out of touch with what is a good CPU and all of that. It used to be pretty straight forward (for the most part) because you just compared Ghz. A 3.2 was faster than a 2.0, etc. But now we have Core 2 and they come in Dual and Quad forms. So what would you get? What is really worth spending the money on and what would be a waste? Should I definitely get a quad over a dual? At what Ghz? What is the best price break for the power I would get?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a ton of money and so I cannot just get the best of the best and the latest of the latest. Also, I don't think I will need more than one CPU, but if the price is not that much different for the motherboard and the cost of the CPU is cheap enough, I can be talked into it. For example, if two dual core CPUs will knock the socks off a single quad (and the price is about the same or less) then I would certainly want to hear about that .

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!