The Nightstar Zoo

Just thought I'd throw this question out there... is anyone well knowledged in the field of PC graphics cards? I'm thinking about upgrading soon, but not sure what to get on my shoestring budget.

I've got a modestly well running three-year-old system:

Pentium 4 1.69 Ghz.
Windows XP
512 MB RAM
64 MB Graphics (nVidia GeForce2 MX 400)

Again, not looking to spend too much as far as cards are concerned... somewhere between $80-$120. Just figured I could get a little more kick out of my system.

Can anyone recommend a card? Or is this a bad time to get one, as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 will make anything I buy obsolete in three months?

Considering that doom 3 has gone gold, If you want to play it get a card that will support it. But I don't really know too much about whats on the market. (I got a new card almost a month ago and haven't yet switched it out)

Definitely a bad time to get one.

Wait a while. ATI's 9800 and X800 will come down and price, and you can get whichever gives you better price/performance then (I made the mistake of getting a 9700 pro about 3 weeks before ATI released the 9800).

As for Doom3, this is more reason to wait. Typically ATI has the better hardware, but it chokes to death on OpenGL. As an aside, I really dislike the way nVidia does business. ATI just announced they're rewriting their OpenGL drivers to stay competetive. If they do it well, they may just beat nVidia in that arena as well. Time will tell.

Good, good. Exactly what I wanted to know. Figured something was up when I noticed every card I could afford had been on the shelf for over a year.

While I'm not specifically looking to run Doom 3, I am looking forward to the games its technology ushers in.

When the X800 comes out with the mid-range and budget models, the 9800 should come down in price to what the 9600 is now.
The only problem is that the X800 is supposedly much, much more powerful than the 9800, so for the next few years (if you're not upgrading yearly) you'll need the X800.
I am looking into upgrading my system (as I currently have a PIII 450 and a Georce F2MX), and I have a tight budget. I was thinking of getting one of the cheaper 9600s, but I think I'll wait a bit for the X800 to come and then maybe go for a cheaper 9800.

For 29 more bucks you could go for the Nvidia 6600. Or you could wait for ATI's answer in this market segment. Preview of the 6600 GT, which is 199$ btw

Mmmm... Tasty Graphic goodness.