What is my graphics card ( or whatever ) capable of?

Question

OK i got this PC second hand and i didn't really know jack S*it about PCs when i got it

Now i am a keen gamer and before i buy a graphics card or the game i wanna know what my PC is capable of doing ( graphics wise ) in the first place

This is what my computer says it has: GeForce4 MX 440

This is the site with info on it. http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce4mx.html

Would this be capable of playing such games as Sims 2 and Age of empires 3??? Links to info on the games below.

Sims 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sims_2#_note-Windows_system_requirements

Age of empires 3:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sims_2#_note-Windows_system_requirements

Thanks =D

PLEASE READ BELOW BEFORE ANSWERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have found that i also have this, SIS accelerated graphics port.

Does this make any difference to the capability in playing the games?

Answer 1

It would work with Sims 2 fine, but the highest graphical settings would not be a possible option and would probably 'lag'. My sister has the same graphics card in her computer and it works fine just a little slowly.

Age of Empires 3 would be possible, but would be too slow to play it properly unless all of the graphical settings were to an absolute minimum and then it's doubtful.

I wouldn't even bother trying Age of Empires 3.

Edit:
A SiS Accelerated Graphics port refers to the port which the graphics card is plugged into. Otherwise known as AGP, the accelerated graphics port was the predocessor of PCI-E (the current standing) and came after standard PCI port graphics cards.

This won't 'help' your graphics card, it just refers to the type of graphics card it is. :)

Answer 2

Hi. Good first answer. Here are the specs, which look OK. Make sure you have the latest drivers. (Just noticed that is the same site you had. Sorry!) http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce4mx.html

Answer 3

go here and read about cards. http://searchna.ati.com/promosearch/?site=us-en&la=en&qt=video+cards&selectsite=ATI&sp_a=sp10039240&sp_p=all&sp-x-1=col&sp_f=ISO-8859-1&sp_q=video+cards

cards with more memory can process color pixels and frame rates faster.

good luck..