How much can i upgrade my ageing PC and how cheaply?

I am looking to upgrade my desktop PC as it is very slow and was bought in 2001. I want to upgrade the RAM to 1GB and the graphics card to something good enough to play the latest games on at reasonable settings (though my monitor only has a resolution of 1024x768). My current system is an Fujitsu Siemens with XP sp2, 256mb RAM (!) and nvidia geforce 2MX 64mb graphics. The processor is a Pentium 4 1.8Ghz, which I do not intend to upgrade. I am on a tight budget which is why I am upgrading and not buying a new PC. This budget is:£100 for RAM, £100 for graphics card (roughly). Has anyone got any advice?

Answers:
That Pent. 4 1.8 is not that bad of a computer. You are light on RAM and spending the money for RAM is a good idea - 1gig.

Here is some information about video cards:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/03/t...
The 1.8ghz P4 uses only once kind of ram, 184 pin 266MHZ DDR.
A stick of kingston RAM is $58 on Newegg.com, a very reputable online retailer.
Almost undoubtedly, your computer has a 2/4x AGP port, which is outdated, but can meet you requirements.
I advise you get a Nvidia 6600 or higher, which runs for about $100, maybe less now. You must get an AGP card, you cannot use a PCI express.
You could also build a new rig using your old case for $50 for the socket 939 motherboard, $50 cpu, maybe a AMD athlon 64 3500 or higher, which is far far superior to what you have right now, Plus a $60 1gb stick of 400mhz ram, plus a $50 nvidia 8400gs, which is about twice as powerful as anything youll find for agp, but not exactly a rocketship. That would be within your budget if you are willing. Its up to you.

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