ati or geforce and other stuff too

i'm planning on upgrading my video card this summer and, i know that this has been talked about, but should i get a ati radeon 8500 64mb or 128mb, or a geforce 4 ti-4200, maybe 4400... or any other ones u might recommend.
i'm also gonna get a new monitor, maybe a 21 or 22 inch one, and i know that the video cards with higher amounts of ram run better and give a higher fps for high resolutions.

my current system specs:
ati radeon 64mb ddr vivo
1.2 ghz amd athlon
40 gig hard drive
256mb ddr ram
windows 98se
soundblaster audigy gamer
asus a7a266 motherboard

i also plan on formatting my comp when i get my new video card. Should i stick with 98se? or upgrade to xp, me, 2000.

i know i'm asking a lot of questions, so your input would be really helpful and will speed up my decision.

and why is it ice cream not iced cream... haha :rolleyes:

First vote for GeForce4 Ti4200.
And get yourself WinXP ;)

ALL-IN-WONDER® RADEON™ 8500DV $207 Retail Box
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/ai...0dv/specs.html

and the ones you want is either this one
RADEON™ 8500 64MB $155 Retail Box
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon8500/specs.html

or this one

RADEON™ 8500 128MB $99 OEM / $163 Retail Box
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/ra...128/index.html

from reviews the 128mb one has more power.

ASUS V8200T2 GeForce3 Ti Deluxe 64MB DDR more info $136 OEM
http://www.asus.com/vga/agpv8200t2/overview.htm

ASUS V8440 GeForce4 4400 128MB DDR $241 OEM
http://www.asus.com/vga/agpv8440/overview.htm

Retail Box = Original with all software, accessories, cables, manuals, etc

OEM = drivers, maybe software, maybe wires, maybe manuals

(like my ATI came with the Remote Control and a ton of other stuff, but if you get the OEM version, then it doesnt come with it)

so which video card do u think would run the best on my system?
keeping in mind i'm gonna get a big monitor

A gf4ti4200 ...

:)

take the geforce 4200! any higher and ur lovely athlon wouldnt be fast enought to support a faster GPU and it wouldnt be worth it. you can overclock your geforce 4 quiete a bit too.... maybe the 4400..... ;)

If your going winxp I suggest you get some more ram.

so if i plan on getting a bigger monitor, should i get the geforce 4 ti-4200 with 128mb of ram?
how bout the radeon 8500 128mb oem, is that any good for a big monitor?

which os is the best for gaming?