It cost just over 900$ for this, it's a pretty good combo, you could try to see if local stores will build something as cheap if not cheaper than this
Stupid monarch just erased what I built, so I remeber it mostly
Thermaltake Soprano with 430Watt Power Supply
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D
AMD 3000+ Venice (Couldn't go for a cheap old newcastle core cpu with monarch unfortunetly.) CPU is Retail
eVGA 6600GT This card could be downgraded if all you want is sims 2, but is worth it for the few more dollars
2x 512 meg of the cheap patriot ram
160 GIG Sata Hard Drive, Seagate
Sony 16X8X16 DVD-RW Drive
Ahead Nero Suite (It's 6.99)
Cyberlink Power DVD (It's also 6.99)
It's no OS, no Monitor as I dont know if you are going to use your old ones.
Feel free to check out my profile and add me to MSN or AIM if you want
EDIT: Oh yeah, this is what I was using to config, you Americans may know some cheaper American Sites
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=80311