Need advice on system upgrade

[M. B.]

I am currently running an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe (non E version) motherboard
with 1 Gig of DDR400 RAM, Pentium 4 3.2Mhz processor (socket 478) and nVidia
6800 GT graphics card.
I do play games but use my PC for other needs.

The time has come that I would like to switch to a DUAL-MONITOR option. For
that, I need a double-output DVI card. I know I can get a 6800 Ultra AGP
card, but its going to cost me over $500. Sure, I can get a 6600 card that
supports it but I dont want to loose graphic performance to below what I
have now. In addition, I feel that the time has come to make an upgrade to
my motherboard. So I have decided to use this opportunity to upgrade my
motherboard/system at the same time.

For that, I would like some help/advice from some of you on the following.

1) I do not plan to get a SLI system.
2) I want to continue using Intel chips (not AMD). Should I go for a
945/955 chipset or even the 975 motherboard? I want to make sure that
whatever I get is going to be working nicely with Windows Vista in the
future. Which model of the Intel CPU chip should I be going with?
3) What sort of system memory should I be going for? I would like to have
2 Gigs of RAM total.

I care most about system stability and not the overclocking functions.

If you are suggestion a motherboard, please give me the full model number.

 

[DaveW]

Windows "Vista" will require a DX 10 capable video card in order to use the
full graphics capabilites of Vista. DX 10 capable video cards will NOT be
available until this Fall. Wait a bit.

 

[Dave]

Windows "Vista" will require a DX 10 capable video card in order to use
the full graphics capabilites of Vista. DX 10 capable video cards will
NOT be available until this Fall. Wait a bit.

I don't know where you heard that. The only official spec. released stated
that to take full advantage of the new aero interface, you would need a
mid-range DX9 class video card with at least 64MB of RAM. No doubt a DX10
capable video card would work, but it's not a requirement . . . at least not
according to Microsoft. -Dave