Advice request: Looking for a 3D card

[Lynch]

I've got a bottom of the barrel Dell system that I bought about 2.5 years ago. I've got the generic Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV video card in it. I can't even tell how much memory is on the damn thing (although I'm suspecting 32mb). System memory is only 128mb.

Obviously I didn't get the system for gaming, but now that my kids are getting a little older, there are a few games they'd like to play but we can't cuz of the joe-average graphix card. Case in point, my son got Fable for the PC for his birthday last week and we need (minimum) 256mb ram on the system (I can figure that out) as well as a better video card, minimum being 64mb Shader capable 3D card.


Sooooooooooo... I'm looking for some suggestions from the peanut gallery if anyone has anything constructive to offer. I do not and will not be buying anything that's $300 as the main purpose of this particular computer is for schoolwork and internet usage. But it would be nice to ahve something that's affordable and will at least allow the kids to play a couple of games.



(BTW: saying "dell sucks" or "you should buy an athalon blah blah blah" isn't helpful)

[DirtyKash]

Start > Run > dxdiag > click on the "Display" tab, and it will tell you how much memory your video card has.