Upgrade or Replace?
 

I was thinking of digging out an old computer to use solely for MS Flight Simulator - I got tired of hooking up the yoke, throttle and pedals just to have to unhook them and put them away a half hour later.

My wife knew this, so this Christmas she surprised me with 3 new CH USB controls and a new 17" WS LCD monitor.

And that's where the trouble starts. First of all, the computer is an AMD Athlon 700MHZ with 160 MB RAM running Windows ME (I know . . . . I know . . . :no: ) It's been in the garage since 2003.

Anyway, I can't change the display to get the 1440 x 900 resolution the monitor recommends. So I figure I'll get a newer video card. I think my MB has a Universal AGP slot - kinda hard to tell - the existing card is set in there pretty well, and I don't want to break it pulling it out, but the card appears to have the spacer at the 3.3V location - but I think the slot itself doesn't have the divider. When I go into the BIOS and chipset settings at startup, it says "AGP 4X Enabled" - so that reinforces my feeling that it's a universal AGP (don't ask me what kind of MB it is - I don't know for sure) and will work at 1.5V, too.

My question is - does anyone out there have a graphics card they'd recommend that will support widescreen, yet be backward compatible enough to work in my machine? Right now I'm looking at a Radeon 7500 (+/- $35)

Or - and this is the big question - considering the money we just spent on hardware, should I just spend a few hundred more and buy a newer computer?

Heck - I can get a dual core desktop for $380 at Buy.com:
http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-pavilion-...205611532.html

Does anyone think that computer is worth saving? Or should I salvage the 120GB HD and trash it?

Oh - BTW - I'd just be using MSFS 2002 - even the computer I'm on right now would probably have trouble running the new MSFS X. I have, in the past, run it on the old computer - that's why I think that if I can get the widescreen resolution problem solved, I should be home free.

Thanks for any opinions and/or help anyone can offer.