How best to upgrade computer to increase SL performance?

We have a new but very basic computer which we're trying to get Second Life to run better on. Right now it is very laggy. I'll list the configuration and ask for suggestions on the best approach to improve performance:

Chipset: ATI Radeon Express\AMD Sempron Processor 3100+
64kb insruction cache + 64kb data cache
512kb level 2 cache

333mhz frontside bus
256mb PC-2700 DDR Ram

We're running on cable internet with decent speed...any suggestions?

Going to bed now, hopefully I'll have some suggestions when I check back tomorrow....thanks in advance

You didn't say whether that is a desktop or laptop system. That will affect the answers.

For either, add RAM. You really want at least a gigabyte to run Second Life well. The Radeon XPress motherboards don't implement dual-channel memory, so there is no need to add matched pairs of RAM; I'd suggest buying a 1GB module and getting your system to 1.25GB. This should cost US$100 or less.

If you have a laptop, that's all you're going to be able to do. Get the latest ATI drivers for "motherboards with ATI graphics", and turn down the quality settings in SL most of the way. You'll get perhaps 5-6fps in normal areas.

If you have a desktop system, you'll want a good separate graphics card. For a system of your performance level, I would suggest an NVidia 7600 or ATI X1600 card; that will run US$100 to $200, depending on what model you get. I believe all the Radeon XPress motherboards take PCI Express video cards, but check your system documentation. With a decent video card and more RAM, you should be able to get 20fps or more in non-budy areas, even with your modest CPU.

I'd echo this advice, while mentioning that I have an even more "modest" CPU and SL runs quite well for me with a gig of RAM. (XP 3000+)I would say that that's probably the fastest and simplest way to get your performance up. SL really doesn't run all that well without at least a gig of RAM, I previously had 512M the upgrade to 1gig made a huge difference, I can't even imagine trying to run it with the memory that the OP has currently.

Thanks Jack and Shirley for the advice. This is a desktop system, so I'll start with the RAM for now, and maybe upgrade the graphics card in a few months.
Best Wishes,
Jules

Sempron is a very light cpu, doesnt matter its mhz a amd64 will crush it, recommended upgrades would be;

min 1024 ram,
pref 2048 as its not very much of a price diffrence

cpu amd64 (dualcore if you want to do several things at once) depends on your motherboard should be able to handle it as most sempron's are just lighter versions of 64's, would need to check bios/motherboard/update info first tho, most just required a bios update, if its a 939 motherboard you get off easy.

vid card any nvidia 6600/6800/7600/7800/7900,256+ ram
avoid LE versions. (dont ask me about ati -.-)
Doesnt matter much for fps really except particles wich can make older card crawl , but general rule is min 6600 imo, rendering lights goes easy now thanks to hardware support on vid card. \o/

SL still want all the cpu power it can get, render heavy program, wish cache was bigger tho heh, 1 gig isnt much for something of this size.

Actually Id skip the Athlon 64 X2s, and get an Intel Core 2 Duo, they are pretty much smoking anything AMD has right now, and are pretty dang cheap. Of course theyve only been shipping for almost two weeks, so its hard to find one, and will be for another couple of weeks.

Your front side bus speed isn't great either--actually, it's the worst available. 500 MHz is the midrange and 800 MHz is the top.

Except that the OP is not looking at building a new system, they're trying to speed up the system they already have, which uses an AMD motherboard.

It's been my experience that one of the most significant improvements can be made with RAM speed. Upgrading to PC3200 (400Mhz) at 2 gb, especially if you can get dual channel mode, greatly improved performance.

Ram speed doesn't actually change if you go for a faster type of ram - unless you start fiddling with the BIOS which I wouldn't reccomend unless they know what they are doing.

Lot's of confusing advice in this thread. In short however if you have a Lap Top, there isn't much you can do. With a Desktop though as you don't mention a graphic's card you are using the onboard set which is barely ( if at all ) compatable.

Therefore you need a new Graphics card, 7600 Nvidia is a good choice, the X1600 is a crap card, X1800's are nice though. There are two interface options, AGP or PCI-E. Pretty sure Radeon XPress is PCI-E only but worth getting a shop to just confirm for you.

Ram need's upgrade to at least 1 gig.

That will turn the PC into something that will play SL reasonably will. Semprons are a little light, and SL is farely CPU intensive, but they are plenty fast enough to not be a major bottleneck. If you do fancy upgrading the CPU then AMD CPU's are VERY cheap at the moment.

Ignore the natter about stuff like Core-2 - that would require essentially a whole new PC which isn't what you want.