processor upgrade?

[new.puree]

I am currently running a amd athlon xp 2000+, evga 6600 gt 128 mb with 1gb of ram.
I was wondering if an upgrade to a athlon 3000+ would significantly impact my framerates while playing a high demanding game such as WoW.
I have a feeling that I can only run mid settings in-game because of my slow processor.
fyi:
My mobo is Socket A so I believe a athlon 3000 is the most it can handle and I've had this processor for about 4 years.

Any suggestions?

If the upgrade is worth it, anyone know of a place to purchase one at the lowest price?

 

[shenlingstyle]

Erm, I doubt you'll notice a ground breaking difference. And the XP 3000+ isn't a very good processor. You should think about two things:

1. Get a XP 2500+ and overclock it to a 3200+

2. Buy the 3200+ because it runs with a 200Mhz FSB, where the 3000+ still runs on 166Mhz.

The former is obviously much cheaper, but you may need a better heatsink/fan, and overclocking of course.

Edit: come to think of it, if you can't run the game on high settings with a 6600GT and 1 gig of ram, then perhaps it is indeed your processor that's slowing you down. What kind of ram you got?

 

[PZEROFGH]

buy a new mobo with a new cpu

or just OC the one you have

 

[GuitarFreak1857]

what's your budget?

 

[new.puree]

ram is a old kingston stick 512 pc2300
and a newly added stick of corsair pc3200
budget is around 100-200 maybe? I was only hoping to buy a new cpu and not with a new mobo altogether because my gfx card is agp based.

* also I doubt that there is a socket a 3200+ so..

 

[new.puree]

I'm not sure what the problem is but.. I also purchased a vga cooler and whenever I play games for a period of about 2 hrs, I experience a major loss in frames to the point where I have to let my computer cool down. Could it be a bad cpu heatsink?
I have tried blowing a house fan into my case and it solves the problem.

 

[PZEROFGH]

i would say just save that money then buy a whole new computer

 

[new.puree]

I'm getting a non gaming laptop in about a year so I need a decent machine to play with for a while... so that is out of the picture

Any more suggestions for my cpu problem?

 

[PZEROFGH]

well you really cant do anythign more with your cpu

i highly doubt you will see a big difference between processors, i mean i can barely see a difference between 2.0Ghz and 2.2Ghz

 

[new.puree]

the difference would be 1.67 to 2.0-2.2