256 MB RAM.
1.7 GHz Celeron.
3 year old Dell.

(I won't go into actual detail.)

I just got this thing last week. It's not spectacular but it does what I need it to (schoolwork, play music and video files and DVDs, and some old legal games.)
And yeah, it's a Dell laptop. :-/

Intel Celeron M processor 360 (1.4 GHz/1 MB Cache/400 MHz FSB)
15.4" LCD display
512MB DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimm for memory
Integrated Intel® Media Accelerator 900 Graphics (definitely not a card for gaming)
40 GB 5400 RPM hard drive
Windows XP Home Edition
24X CD-RW/DVD combo drive
802.11 b/g internal wireless card, 54 Mbps

And yeah, that's about it. No floppy drive, no PCMCIA slot (it has something called an ExpressSlot or some shit like that), and 3 usb slots.
I love this thing.

I have a shit computer compared to most of you guys...  Of course I am too lazy to get a job so I shouldn't complain:

Processor: AMD Sempron 1.8Ghz (Crappy, I know, but I haven't run into any problems that had to do w/the cpu, its the lack of ram and a video card that is the problem)
Ram: 512MB (To be doubled after a video card)
Video Card: Integrated (To be addressed)
OS: Windows XP
Hard Drive: 40GB (160GB HD in the mail for my music/torrents)
Disk Drives: DVD-Rom/CD-RW

So my question to you guys is what Video Card should I buy?  I don't have a PCI-e slot (obviously, look at the rest of the specs) so I'll need an AGP card.  I want a card that will allow to play the Sims 2 in decent detail and at a good framerate.  I know it is possible with my computer, because my friend has a computer that is close to 3 years old and can play Doom 3 perfect on high settings.

I was looking at this http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1776106&sku=P450-8568
(yes I am canadian) and I was wondering if this would get the job done.  Games like Sid Meier's Pirates run fine, but I burnt The Sims cds 2, 3, 4 (downloaded the first one, which wouldn't copy for some reason) off of my friend and the install went perfectly (I was expecting it to mess up, seeing as how I just downloaded a play disc that could've easily been a different version) but the game was horrid.  It looks like The Sims 1 and plays slower than god.

I have a weak budget (>$150CDN) but I need a card that will run games of this calibre on my computer.  I was also wondering if I should buy a fan to go along with it, seeing as how I only have a case fan.

I know I should probably just go and buy another computer with a better CPU, but I don't have the money and won't have for a long, long time.

Thanks in advance guys.

Processor: AMD® Athlon-64 3800+ CPU
Motherboard: Abit KN-8 Ultra
Ram: 1024 MB [512 ][/512] DDR-400 PC3200
Video-Card: (PCI-Express 16x) ATI Radeon x1300 256mb [Loud ][/Loud]
HDD 1: 40GB Western Digital Caviar SE [SATA]
HDD 2: 300GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9  [Serial-ATA-II, ][/Serial-ATA-II,]
CD/DVD Drive: LG16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Sound Card: Integrated Nvidia nForce Audio
Speakers: LabTec 2.1
Monitor: Samtron 17" CRT
Keyboard/Mouse: ZIPPY Slim Illuminated/Logitech MX500
OS: Dual Boot; Windows XP Pro/Ubuntu Breezy Badger[x86][Currently ][/Currently]

Upgraded specs:

Pentium 4 3.20ghz
Geforce 7800gt
A gig of ram

Mine:

Really Shitty

My pc that i just bought yesterday in pc world and is currently getting assembled has:
Amd athlon 64 3800+ dual core processer
2 Gb ram
Saphire Radeon x1300 512mb graohics card
19inch tv tuner Lg Screen
200gb samsung hard drive
creative inspire 2.1 with sub woofer speakers

My new computer, using a few parts from my old, but still pretty darn fast!

Asus A8N-SLI nForce4 Premium
AMD Opteron 165 @ 1.9ghz 210HTT/9x (Have not really overclocked this yet, just tested a 5% boost)
   - 64bit Dual Cores, 1mb Level 2 Cache on each one
XFX 7900GT Extreme @ 550/1700
1024 Corsair PC3200 Value Ram, Stock Timings
320GB SATA 3.0 7200 RPM 16mb Cache Western Digital Caviar
SB Audigy ZS
Sunbeam Nuuo 550w PSU

Windows XP Professional SP2 - eXPerience "Mini-XP" edition (A trimmed down version of windows whose installer is only 121mb, fits on a minidisc, and on fresh intall uses only 48mb of ram. It is very optimized)

And I stuffed it all into one of my first ATX cases I got 6 years ago! I didnt feel like spending a lot of money for a durable steel case, only to get stupid eccentric designs and cheap parts.

Wow leafo, we both upgraded our computers at almost the same time. And I thought you weren't going to upgrade for awhile.

Windows XP Media Centre.
Intel pentium D 2.8 GHZ.
Ram: 512 MB ddr2.
HD: 80 GB.
Graphics; Intel GMA 950
Keyboard: Gay DEll one.
Case: XPS 200.

Need more ram.

AMD Athlon X2 4400+ overclocked to 2.5ghz
2 gigs Dual Channel pc3200 ram
2 XFX GeForce 6800GS Overclocked to 500mhz each
160 gb maxtor s-ata hard drive