Well recently I upgraded my ram up to 1 GB and now I am looking into getting a newer graphics card. Firstly, I am looking for something that isn't real costly, but at the same time will run really well. I have looked at a few cards and noticed that PCI-e is a cheaper way to go (in the long run), now I know that it is an entirely different place on the motherboard than AGP but I really want to know what is the main differences? Is AGP faster? Would I really notice a difference if I bought a PCI-e card?

I imagine you're talking about PCI express and not PCI.

You won't find a mobo with PCI-e for a socket A CPU, so you would have to change it too if you change your motherboard.

And don't worry, for the same card, there's no noticeable difference in performances anyways.

Edit: however, if you do change your processor, go with PCI-e as it offers more upgrade possibilities for the future.

Thanks for you help =). I just now noticed someone posted a reply to this. I'll have to give it some thought on whether or not ill go with pci-e and go ahead and change the mother board or not. But thanks again!

It would be best to go PCIe because all the new cards are PCIe. PCIe is now only being used for all new graphics cards(7800,X1800) and Nvidia's SLI and ATI's Crossfire use PCIe as PCIe has a faster data transfer rate. AGP will probably be gone in a years time.

This is if he also wants to change his processor as he won't find PCI-e mobos for a socket A CPU. There are very fine AGP cards too.

ATI will also release the X1600XT in AGP soon: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28159) which seems to be a very good choice for a middle range GPU.

If he changes his processor, PCI-e is the way to go in order to have a machine that will be more easily upgradable in the future and there's no point in buying a new mobo that supports only AGP at this time. However, in terms of immediate performances there aren't noticeable differences between the AGP version of a card and the PCI-e version.

The first post is VERY important

PCI-e is different from PCI. Double check before you buy.

Also, be careful of any cooling and especially power supply requirements. If you have an older machine you may not have enough of a power supply to use a bleeding-edge graphics card.

AGP vs PCI-e: basically the same performance-wise.