Upgrading 3 year old hardware advice...

So I got a couple bucks left over from the holidays and I'd like give my system a much needed kick in the ***. I picked up both Unreal Tournament 3 and The Witcher and I'm very unhappy with how sluggish things have been even at med settings.

Right now I have:

Evga 6800GS

1GB of Ram

Athlon 64 3200+ (939mobo)

I've only got ~$250 to spend. Another gig of ram seems like the obvious choice, and itll cost me $60 from newegg. That would leave me with $190 to spend on either a videocard and processor upgrade. This is where I could use some advice. I know that older components can bottle neck the others. Browsing newegg I see that I have 3 options:

1. An Athlon x2 3800+ and a 8600GT XXX

2. ATI HD3850, but no upgrade to the processor

3. Core 2 Duo E4500+Mobo, but no videocard upgrade.

Which is going to give me the biggest performence boost? I'm happy being able to play my games at med-high settings for now. I'll worry about overhauling the system later when Ive got more cash.Any advice or alternative options you folks can provide is much apppreciated, thanks.

Easily.. #1

The new Intel MoBo and Processor, too expensive in long run.

Well I would buy this then upgrade later because why spend on ddr and cpu you wont be able to use later. Just use your 6800 (If its PCI-E) with this and you see a big difference then save up for a video card and you will be rockin.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128069 -Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103778 -CPU X2 4800

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590 2gb DDR2

Total: $ 243 after shipping

Can't you get the HD8350 AND the gig of RAM? that would proberly give the biggest upgrade... imo.rik666

Yea, I planned to get the ram no matter which option since its so cheap.

So I decided to go with a more future proof plan. I'm going to get the extra gig of ram and the evga 8600GT videocard, I'm hoping that'll give me enough of a boost to comfortably play Witcher and UT3. Then in a month or so I'll get a quadcore+mobo. And finally use evga's steup+tax refund to upgrade my videocard.

Thanks again for all the advice!