But, I also see that the computer only offers 1gig.
Can this be true if I sling the old memory?
Yes, unfortunately. Max RAM is 1GB - it won't recognise modules larger than 512MB.
I don't quite understand your question about the graphics card. Are you saying that AGP 8X could be good enough but the particular card you have is crap? Or are you saying that there's a fault with your current card?
AFAICS, the current video card has only 128MB RAM - you can get fast AGP cards with loads of RAM (up to 1GB) for £60 - 80 (less in the USA, obviously). So yes, if you keep the PC you can upgrade to a more-than-adequate card.
It's a dual core PC, so even with 1GB RAM it should still be pretty nippy.
For general purposes, that sounds like a perfectly respectable PC (provided it doesn't have Windows Millstone - sorry, Vista - installed).
BTW - where do ribbon cables to the drives come into it? Do you mean it's PATA only, with no SATA? Or that it's 40-wire ribbon, not 80-wire ribbon and doesn't support the faster DMA modes? Or something else?
SD