🚀 go-pugleaf

I wrongly added this post in reply to a thread above (thread name..'Re:
Alright, so graphics cards') and changed my mind to making it a new thread,
and ended up posting both-apologies for any confooozment:

Only two years+ ago I got a near 'state of the art' motherboard (ASUS
A7V333R) and a Radeon 8500 64MB graphics card PC set up. This ran all the
very latest (at that time, obviously) games wonderfully. Recently I've found
that I need to tame down the effects for present day games to get the
playability/frame rate I need. So, I thought of getting a Radeon 9600 pro. I
have 256 MB of PC2100 DDR memory and was planning to add to that to get 1
gig of mem in total. Upgrading my CPU to something like an Athlon XP 3000
(currently an Athlon XP 1.8) would compliment these upgrades well and would
just about add up to the total funds I have put aside for such an upgrade.

Then I discovered the Radeon 9600 pro is an AGP 8X card (though will still
slot in my Asus A7V333's AGP 4X/2X only slot, and still be a massive boost
for my PC graphical power, or so I'm told).

Upgrading my motherboard now, what with all the other upgrades listed above,
would stretch to an amount that I can't possibly afford.

So, would I benefit from getting the Radeon 9600 pro put in my AGP 4X slot
in my Asus A7V333 motherboard, as don't forget, when the funds become
available, I could always then buy an AGP 8X capable motherboard and shift
everything onto that?

As I understand it from various sources, AGP 8X has not yet seen many users
benefit from it, with users with AGP 8X cards in AGP 8X slot motherboards,
with games running as if only in AGP 4X slots anyway. Searching Google for
various users machines (gaming) specs, I've come across many set ups
including my Asus A7V333 motherboard with a Radeon 9600 pro card in place,
and they don't seem too concerned at the lack of an AGP 8X slot.

Would my machine benefit from my proposed upgrades, or is the motherboard
going to have to have an AGP 8X slot in place (meaning a new board) for
future games? To summarise; will there be games in the not too distant
future that need your AGP 8X card slotted in an AGP 8X slot, and not in
an AGP 4X/2X only motherboard?

Personally, I can't see game developers alienating the majority of PC gamers
in this way...especially as I've read about game developers being dubious to
the benefits of AGP 8X and AGP slot upgrades in general.

Please help?