A while ago, I posted wondering if my power supply was good enough for an upgrade to a 7600GT or 7900GS. Well I'm considering getting the GT due to space concerns in the case.

I am hesitant on a few fronts however on how to upgrade the computer, and wanted opinions if anyone still wouldn't mind. The computer is:

Athlon 64 3700 (2.2ghz)
Socket 939 motherboard, SATA150, DDR400, AGP
AGP Geforce 6600 256mb
430W Antec TruepowerII, 17A on two rails I believe.
old as dirt case with no front USB
Kingston 1GB ValueRAM DDR400
Viewsonic 19" VX922, 1280x1024 resolution
I used to have 2gb of kingston, but one stick died.

I am getting some low framerates playing a certain online RPG, when multiple characters are on the screen, then framerates are fine looking at most scenery.

This leads me to believe that either the processor is weak, or the graphics card is weak. I am thinking of upgrading to the 7600GT and adding 1gb of ram. However if I do this, and it does not solve the issue, I will have wasted money for the most part... as there is not much more of an upgrade path beyond that.

The other option, and one I am slightly short on money-wise, is to completely overhaul the system.

4200 Athlon 64 X2
Socket AM2 with DDR2, SATA300, PCIe
PCIe 8600GT
2gb DDR2
new case
500-550W power supply

However I am still short on that much of an upgrade.

My continuing reasons to pause are...

Friends in game, claim very little or no lag with Barton Athlon XP 2500 chips, 1gb ram, and Geforce 6200s/9800s

I have seen many forums which laugh at my posts, and say dude you need to get a 6000 X2 with 8800GTX SLI.. but then look at other topics where someone has a 24inch montior, and they tell him he needs a bigger video card because of the resolution he's running at... something like 1600x1200... that a 7600GS won't cut it, he needs like a 7950 or 8600GTS. I don't give this much stock, because most of the users at hardware forums are complete... well nm, but I am wondering if my 19" monitor at 1280x1024 is a bit much for my little 6600 and maybe the 2-3x power upgrade of a 7600GT would be enough.

Some people say my system looks great and it should run fine.
Worried that maybe the motherboard is bad or powersupply if my system should be running this game "fine".

So, I would love to throw a video card and ram stick at this problem and be fixed for 1-2years for 170$, but at the same time I don't want to do that and have it not fixed, wasting the 170$, but I am a little short of a full upgrade to the newer standards.

Windows XP SP2, and the most straining thing I run on it is this older MMORPG. It isn't oblivion, starcraft 2, or some other highly intense game, but it has been called "poorly coded" and a "memory hog" by many players. I guess that happens when you could originally play the game on a geforce2, when it first came out, but it has been patched for years. The system requirements are the same as they were 3 years ago, but the game has seriously become more demanding since then. The game manufact won't really update their system requirements, so I can't get a clear picture of what is needed.

Thanks for any help in advance, hope I am not bothering too many.