what game should i buy?

[King of Fighters]

Well what i mean battousia, is putting an amd athlon 2600 (at about 2.6 ghz) or an amd athlon 2700 (at about 2.7 ghz) into the computer instead of having a pentium 4 3.06 processor. Everything else will be the same as it was before.

[battousai16]

what i probably should have mentioned is that i'm completely computer illiterate. i just know enough to play my games, write my posts, and, if my computer likes me, download some music

[GrrrArg]

An Athlon 2600 doesn't have a clock speed of 2.6 ghz, its somewhere around 2.3/2.4 but AMD call it the 2600 because it performs at the same level as a P4 2.4 ghz (the same with all Athlons that have numbers like that after them) but the athlons are more than good enough (im using a 2600 and its damn fast).

 

Basically clock speed is how many actions the processor can perform in one cycle, pentiums have higher clock speeds than equivalent athlons, but the athlons do more per cycle at the same clock speed (there a little more efficient).

 

You won't have any problems running games for a while with that spec of computer, oh and don't be tempted to go for super high end 3d cards like the GeForce FX range, their performance is good but the price isn't justified, the radeon 9600 you talk about is a very good card.

 

As far as games go, im an RPG fan myself and the best to get are Baldurs Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights both from Bioware and Planescape torment is amazing but a little old now.

 

FPS's, Battlefield 1942 is good, Half-life is always worth it and the second one is coming out in November( ). Unreal 2 may be worth a look if you want to really use your graphics card.

 

RTS-the best at the moment is Warcraft 3 (havent played the addon pack yet) and Rise of nations is rather good too, you could also try pretty much anything in the Command and Conquer series.

 

Phew, long post...