[sclug] New Mobo and processor - help requested

[Neil Haughton]

my PC (Athlon, 0.75G mem, NVidia MX440 graphics) is objecting to the latest
Linux distros (debian Wheezy, Mint 15, Fedora 19, and others). Either they
won't install properly or they the screens are unusable, I can't easily
find reasonably priced higher capacity memory sticks to increase RAM, so .
it appears my PC is due for an overhaul.

I'm not looking for a smoking games machine, but something that I can put a
couple of GB of RAM in, comfortably run a 64 bit Linux distro, supports 3d
graphics accelleration, and (ideally) allows me to retain my PATA drives
plus add SATA drives when needed. I need browsing, GIMP, Digikam and that
sort of thing, LibreOffice to run at respectable (unfrustrating) speeds. In
other words I want something that will clip along nicely and yet not eat my
wallet. Oh yes, a reduction in power consumption would be very nice so my
wife can leave it on all day without reducing me to tears ( :-( ), but a Pi
is going too far.

So one option is to replace the mobo and processor with something 'modern'
that still supports PATA drives (preferably) as well as Sata II and accepts
a multi core processor, and will run the latest Linux distros.
Unfortunately I haven't done this for some 10 years now so I am all at sea,
floundering  in a maze of unfamiliar processors, sockets, SIMMs, boards,
etc etc.

Alternatively a new or 2nd user machine altogether may be an answer, but
that woiuld mean discarding my nearly new PATA drives, case, PSU etc which
are all in good nick, so not my first choice.

I'm not askling anyone to choose for me, but can someone kick me off by
suggesting suitable possibilities?

TIA