Back in the DAY, I ran a computer shop out of the local flea market. This has been 10 or 11 years ago, and I sold computers $1 = CPU speed. Well those days are over. Things have gotten confusing for this old Hippie Gypsy! And I have no clue where to go for answers.

I currently have
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD 785GTM-E45 (MS-7549) 1.0
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz with a 2.10 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core CPU. 4GB memory. ATI Radeon HD 5450 video card

I KNOW the board & CPU is at LEAST 3 years old.

What I am asking is, what would be a upgrade on a limited budget? Something I can do right away, then save scratch back to do a bigger upgrade later on? I am more trusting of the folks here and on other boards than I am at the computer stores, as you have nothing to gain by giving me good advise. They want to make as much of a sale as possible to pad their sales. Can someone help out this old hippie?

You already have a mean machine.
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I know the board & CPU is at LEAST 3 years old.