it's better than my old Radeon 9700 Pro since it supports the 2.0 Shaders. however, in today's standards, that card leans toward the low end side of what's available. if you want my recommendation, get the GeForce 6600 GT or higher. at least those cards support the 3.0 Shaders and have good enough speed to get you through about one to two years before its outdated if you plan on using Windows XP or Linux. if you upgrade to Vista, that card will be outdated since it won't be DirectX 10 compatible.
hope that helps.
See the struggle of the faithless lot as they negate their time
How low to sink to the depths of their frame of mind