Old AGPx4 slot, can I still get High-end cards for it? If not, what do I do?

[Desert_Eagle25]

I looked up my motherboard lately and realized my AGP slot is a x4/x8, not a x8/x4, meaning the slots are short, then long, like this:

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I'm on a budget and already spent much of my $500 upgrading the around-abouts of my computer and have $300 left for a graphics card. Can i still get a high-end card such as a RADEON 9800 Pro 256MB with a x4/x8 AGP slot? Most that I see on the market are only built for x8/x4 and I don't know if going x4/x8 will cost more, or if it even exists. If I have to get a new motherboard too....then...*sob*

If I do need to get a new mtoherboard, what kind should I get?

My minimum requirements would have to be:

3-4 PCI Slots

1 AGPx8 Slot (obviously)

3 RAM Slots

3 Hotwire slots (HD, CD-D, and Floppy)

AMD Athlon support

and all the rest. As mtoherboards go, I was looking at this one, would this be good? http://www.partspc.com/store/product3317.html

[Super-ness]

you should easily get a gfx card that would work

i have an AGP x4 slot

and my FX5600 fit in

Khan i think has something similar

[Nyarlathotep]

I've nevr liked VIA chipsets, but I think the board you linked to would do fine. It has one of VIA's latest chipsets on it. You may want to look for a similair board with a Nforce chipset.

[Desert_Eagle25]

I'm not really looking for a GeForce tho (no slamming on it), I'm more or less looking for a RADEON in the 9600 series' and up thats AGPx4.  Online I can't find a single one, and at Fry's Electronics I don't think I saw one...

[Desert_Eagle25]

Whats the difference between nForce and VIA?  If I'm getting an ATi card, which chipset would work better?

[Desert_Eagle25]

Also, when buying a graphics card, does it matter if the card was made by Gigabyte or Asus, yet uses an ATi chipset?  Is it all the same thing in the end?  I'm seeing so amny different looking/priced models of the exact same 9600 XT I want and it gets sorta confusing...

[Nyarlathotep]

Whats the difference between nForce and VIA?