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I think you can easily get those components for around $500, as long as you search a bit for a cheap retail outlet. I'm not from the US so I can't help you with that. Just to compare, I'm in the process of upgrading to AMD64 myself, this is the price list I've calculated, in euros (based on my favourite netstore's pricing. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either):
AMD64 3200+ Bulk: ~220e
Ati K8 Pro Motherboard: ~110e
1GB of Kingston DDR: ~220e
Just to make sure, since you asked for simple terms, bulk means that it doesn't come with a heatsink or a fan or any other by-products, since I'll rather buy an above-stock quality sink and fan myself. The 3200+ should be quite good in modern gaming, although you might be able to find 3400+ processors with relatively small price difference. Now, when buying an AMD64, you'll need to check the socket type. AMD has just switched from the old 754 socket to a new model (939, not quite sure), so make sure you have a compatible motherboard and processor. I'm going with the old 754 socket myself, since the prices seem to be a bit cheaper, all of the 939-socket processors are in the upper clockspeed range and thus much more expensive.
As you can see, the processor/mb combination is only around 330e or maybe even less. You can easily get a decent case for 170e, infact with that money you can get an extremely good one. If you want quiet, but still relatively cool, I suggest you take a look at Antec Sonata, it's a mid-tower case with excellent airflow, built-in filters and overall good quality. The harddrives are mounted in rubber pillows, removing all of the resonance from them. I'm running my setup in one of those, with two 120mm slow and quiet case fans and a copper sink/quiet CPU fan. For the AMD64 setup, I'll mostly go for a bit more powerful CPU fan but for the rest I think I should be adequately set up.
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