gowater, though I'm pretty young I remember back before the 486 actually, but I've never looked into hardware. I've always just bought pre-built systems from a local shop and such. So I have a lot to learn in that department...and appreciate any recommendations. As far as my old video card, it seems like some mobos support older AGP cards and some don't. I didn't see any notices about it on the 2 Athlon64 motherboards I've looked at so far. So maybe I'm ok.

desire, getting back rebates depends on what center they go to and how persistent you are at making sure you get them. I've had good luck, but you do have to get on them if they try to suddenly "lose" your entry. There have been cases where I've forgotten to send them in though.

Yeah, the 3000+ does look good...do you guys really think it'll go down in price significantly in a month or two?