I have read through the various posts about graphics cards but not really found the answer I am looking for.
I am going to buy a new graphics card, at present I have VIA/S3g Unicrome IGP and when I attempt to upgrade its drivers to get rid of some graphics problems (red water etc) it tells me I have the most current drivers. So new graphics card it it

my question
what do I buy, the man in in the computer shop recommended and installed the one I have now, so what do I tell him I want?? I have an AMD Sempron 2400+ 1.66ghz, 448 mg ram

Do you have an AGP port?

Right! My PC has no AGP, only PCI so I'm somewhat limited. The game's minimum requirement is a 32 bit card. My wife uses a 64 bit with 128RAM I have a GeForce 5500 O.C. with 256 Ram. We have no differences in game play.
I prefer Nividia over Radeon. The price is the same for what you get, but it's just my pref.
It basically comes down to what you want to spend. Anything 64bit and up will do fine for Sims2. Look for one that has at least 128 - 256 RAM.

The card is only one third of the problem, you also need good processing speed and as much ram as your machine will handle. There are three ranges of cards, cheap, midrange, and expensive. I'm in Australia so I can't give you a benchmark price for these but for running the Sims 2 you need to be looking at the higher end of the midrange. I have a radeon 9600xt which I find pretty slow although I have decent processing and ram. This is an easy guide which gets you to think about what you need and then makes suggestions: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1854767920

moorspede