I'm interested in getting a better video card for my system, there's a catch though. I need an AGP (AGPx4) card, so I'm looking for the best one I can get my hands on.

Current video card is an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro. I have a Dell Dimension 4600, Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 2.5gig RAM, Windows XP SP3, 60 gig HDD and on board sound card.

I don't have the option of getting a new machine, upgrading the mother board or anything like that. The only thing I can upgrade at this point is the video card.

So, any and all suggestions about getting the best APG card out there are welcome! Thanks!

According to this this technical overview at Dell, you should be able to put a AGP 8x video card into it.

A 9800Pro, or X850Pro would be a nice fit.
You can probably only find them second hand, via e-bay and the likes.

Or maybe even an x1950? Those did come at AGP?
Question is, will your Power Supply be powerfull enough?

Good Luck!

Cool! Thanks for the suggestion.

Couple of questions tho. Why wouldn't my power supply be adequate? Does it have to do with the stuff on the video card (fan for example)? How would I find out if a new card would be compatible with my powersupply?

Power Supplies come in 2 types: good ones, and bad ones.

Bad ones have ratings listed they cannot really meet.
Good ones can.

Yours (according to the documentation in the link I posted) states '1Maximum continuous total DC output cannot exceed 200 W. Maximum continuous combined load on +5-VDC and +3.3-VDC outputs cannot exceed 135 W.'

That does not sound like it's a lot. But, it's a Dell, so...

Here's a link that shows Dell Dimension 4600 AGP Video card options, those are (apart from some re-furbished ones) all modern cards... (No 9800Pro)
However, they do suggest a HD2400 Pro, which, according to its specs, needs 270W...

Just wanted to inform you that an upgrade is not without a risk.... Not sure how to eliminate it... (Well, looks like you could put in an FX5200 safely, but then you would not gain very much )

I'd simply try a second hand 9800Pro, at E-bay there's offers as low as 10 USD...

Keep in mind that if you buy a card like a HD2400 your CPU is going to be the bottle neck in your system.

Might be better to save some more money and get a new Mobo, CPU, RAM and Videocard.

Thanks again for the suggestions and advice, very helpful. After reading those suggestions and thinking about it, I came to the same conclusion that NDS_Camp did and that is to start saving some cash for new and more powerful components, or a new system altogether.

Thanks again and I'm sure you'll be hearing from me when I am ready to build a new system!

+1 to that. No matter what graphical settings I used with my AMD 3000+ (roughly equivalent to your P4) and 6600GT, some maps (or maps with 20+ players) never ran smoothly, which means that the processor was the limiting factor.

Good AMD or Intel Dualcore with a recent model Mobo, DDR2 memory and a nVidia 8800GT/9800GT or ATI equivilant or beter shouldnt be to much money.
A good computer case doesnt have to be a lot of money also, and preferably buy a seperate powersuply of +-500 Watt of a know brand.

Rest of the stuff should be easly transferable from your old rig to the new one altough a new HardDrive would hurt with your current one only being 60GB (i sugest a SATA 300GB 7200RPM atleast)

If your buying a new Mobo you should be able to buy a OEM / Systembuilder version of Windows with it, wich is a lot cheaper than the retail versions, and some stores might even be willing to give you a good deal on that.