System Upgrade Questions

Im currently running a socket 939 platform, and would like to upgrade to a dual core processor system. I have a budget of $500, and would like to know which system I would get the most performance from.

My current sytem:

Asrock 939dual-vsta

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego @ 2.4ghz

ATI Radeon 9600pro (AGP)

1 Gig(2x512mb) G.Skill ddr400


Upgrade #1:

Upgrade my current system with:

AMD Opteron 175 Denmark dual core@2.2ghz

Asus ATI Radeon 1600pro 256mb (PCI express)

and add 1 more Gig of ram...(2x512)


Upgrade #2:

MSI 945P Neo3-F LGA 775

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz

SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon X1550 256MB (PCI Express)

Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 667


Upgrade #3:

MSI K9VGM-V Socket AM2

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz

Asus ATI Radeon 1600pro 256mb (PCI express)

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800

With a budget of only $500...which do you think would be the better performing system to build, with no overclocking....although it might be a possibility down the road

I do some multi tasking, like converting AVI files to DVD's, and other task's at the same time. Which really slows down my current processor, so a dual core would be nice for that. But I also game quite often..mainly Battlefield 2, and America's Army...which are both single process games, not optimized for dual core processors yet.

Any suggestion's would be appreciated

i wouldnt bother to be honest (unless you can get a decent price for your 3700) you probably wont notice that much difference i would suggest that you wait a couple of months then buy a new conroe (or Barcelona if it ever turns up) based system