Upgrading A Great Old Desktop Into Modern Specs

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Demious

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Hello Everyone!

I just started a summer job and want to upgrade an old desktop that was purchased around 2002 or 2003. As I'm not sure that maximum that it can be upgraded to, I thought I should ask here for help or advice.
Current Specs:
-AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+
-2.21 GHz
-960 MB RAM
-Windows XP Home Edition 2002
-Service Pack 3

I need to take a look under the hood to tell if the RAM comes from a single ("1 GB") card or from two ("500 MB") cards. I would assume it would be the single GB as 960 seems fair with planned obsolescence. I'm not sure what other information I should obtain, but I don't have paperwork for the computer. All I have are the Microsoft dealer numbers and such.

So here's my questions: how would I find the max amount of RAM this PC can hold, and what would be a good fit (names would be nice) for chips? Is it worth it to upgrade the Motherboard to something like 3GHz? What other upgrades should I make to the PC to make it run higher level games with a greater speed?

Assuming I want to spend $400 max and have the ability to do all labor myself, is it worth it to upgrade the PC? Can this be achieved with $400?

Any help would be nice.
 
what motherboard is presently installed?

Is this a Brand Name computer like a Dell, HP, etc...? If it is please tell us the model number.
 
Spent some time with the BIOS menu. Haven't found any usable info. The computer was custom created with Microsoft. The chassis is from Acer.
Some info from the Microsoft certification:

Product Key: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Also says: X11-45393
And: N09-01991

I have no idea how to tell what the motherboard is. Would it not be the AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+?
 
Nope, that looks to recent. It's an 06 at the earliest.

I just finished reading the sticky. I'll be running CPU-Z and give you the results from there.
 
Processor
Name-AMD Athlon 64 3500+
CodeName- ClawHammer
Package-Socket 939
Core Speed - 2210.1 MHz
Bus Speed - 200.9 MHz

Mainboard
Manufacturer - ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Model- A8N-VM-CSM Rev1.xx
NViDIA GeForce 6150 Chipset
NVIDIA nForce 410/430 MCP Southbridge
Graphic Interface Version- PCI-Express
Link Width: x16
Max. Supported x16

Memory
Type - DDR
Size- 1024 MBytes
DRAM Frequency- 200.9 MHz

DirectX Version- DirectX 9.0c
Device Name- NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Approx Memory - 512.0 MB
Main Driver - nv4_disp.dll
Version - 6.14.0011.7516

Is there anything else I need to get you for info? Let me know and I'll have it for you. I think you may be right about that computer, but the chassis is different in the picture from what I have currently.
 
What would your advise be? Should I spend $400-$600 upgrading the motherboard or just invest in a new computer as a whole? Is it even possible to just upgrade the motherboard and the RAM and have it run better?
 
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