Hi,
My fathers computer is a custom built system.
Asus motherboard, AMD CPU 1,000mhz, 256mb ram.
ATI expert 2000 pro video card (32mb, AGP)

This game "Rome Total War" he'd like to play will not work with this video card.
System Requirements:
http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/rtw/index.php
----
"3D Hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectX® 9.0b
compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and the
latest drivers*.

ATI® Radeon 8500
ATI® Radeon 9000
ATI® Radeon 9500
ATI® Radeon 9600
ATI® Radeon 9700
ATI® Radeon 9800
All Nvidia® GeForce® 3 and higher

Important Note: *Some 3D accelerator cards with the chipsets
listed here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration
features utilized by Rome: Total WarT. Please refer to your
hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX 9.0b compatibility. "
----

I would wonder if I could have a suggestions on what video
card to purchase. A used video card would be preferred nothing
fancy just enough would be my wishes for his system. All the
choices of video cards is overwhelming to me.

Alex

I wouldn't spend much at all on the video card because he's barely making the min required specs on CPU and RAM, and any new video card will be waiting for that CPU to catch up.

ATI 9200/9250
Nvidia FX5200
Nvidia MX4000

I'd also look at some more RAM at the very least.

"...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"

Thanks for the suggestions. I was happy to find out recently that his motherboard can support a 1,800mhz AMD CPU with a BIOS upgrade. I will have to take the memory suggestion you gave also.

For the 3 video cards you suggested. I looked through the specs of each. Only one supports DirectX 9.0 which the game needs it seems...
Thats the Nvidia FX5200, but of corse this card works with PCI Express only, which this
motherboard doesn't do.

Do you have another suggestion? :^)

Your mistaken... The FX 5200 Is AGP/PCI my friend. Its a decent card but out of date.

It is out of date, but so is that whole system. ;-)

Also, I would strongly urge you to at least consider upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and Fan now. If you're gonna buy memory anyway, why not get DDR if you're only running SDRAM now, and newer motherboards perform drastically better than yours. Nforce 2 Ultra 400 motherboards start at around $50. Currently, Newegg is selling 2x512M Mushkin PC3200 kits for $80 after rebate.

If you do all that, I would then consider a Radeon 9550 since it's not much more than an FX5200.

"...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"

If your on abudget and cant do much, Try to upgrade the ram and get at least a MX 4000 ( Unless if it isnt compatible with rome total war.. Id ont know the specs for sure..) and try getting the ram up to 512. If you plan on trying to play future games though I strongly suggest you make a new computer from scratch since that system will not be very... worth wild for long even with small upgrades.

Upgrading pc equipment is all very annoying to me :^) I don't keep up on the technology changes and I quickley confused with the advances and changes in "standards".

My dad uses this computer to do work on and thats basically it, he isn't a "gamer". The last game he played was age of mythology which was over a year ago. So sure the system is "outdated" but its not logical to replace the motherboard every other year. My dad will play this game for a few weeks and then he'll get tired of it and another year will pass.... I'd wish he'd play more games though
he's a work acholic.

Thanks for letting me know that the FX 5200 was AGP. I missed that, I'd read Express PCI here and didn't notice there appears to be two types.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/fx_5200.html

His motherboard supports two types of ram.
DDR and SDR. Right now, 2X 128mb SDRAM
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7a266/overview.htm
So I might buy some DDR ram as you suggested.

I think with one of these video cards and some ram I can tide him over. If I asked him to pay for a new MB, ram, and video card he'd hit the floor :) The nvidia FX 5200 looks like what i'll choose though at the moment. I can't seem to figure out if the MX 4000 supports directx 9, which the game requires. The FX 5200 seems to support directx 9.0 though.

Thanks for your help so far.
How do you both stay on top of technolgy so well?

It's a passion of mine, and I work in IT...

You'd actually be better off replacing the motherboard instead of the CPU performance wise, believe it or not, just FYI.

Of course, doing both is even better. ;-)

"...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"