So I finally decided to do a complete computer makeover and now enjoy the wonders of PCI-E vs AGP land. Here are the results of this endeavor (Newegg links but actually mostly purchased @Fry’s Eectronics):
OS:
It has been a busy week at work so I am still tweaking and installing software but besides upping the level of eye candy, so far, Vista is neither the bane or salvation of Windows operating systems. And probably if AMD/ATI would actually release a better OpenGL implementation in its Linux driver (so I can play Oblivion under wine) this may have been a single boot machine.