Team fortress 2 low fps, upgrade cpu?

oh and 1 more thing, i purchased some steam games over the internet (downloaded them from steam) would I have to buy them again for my new rig as i will have to do a fresh install of everything?

No. Just make sure to remember your steam account info: login and password!

My old 3.2GHz Pentium IV Northwood is a socket 478 processor on a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP motherboard built on the Intel 875P chipset. It has 1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC3200 timed at 2,2,2,5 (normally rated at 2,2,2,6 timings) with a BFG 6800GS OC. I get between 83-84 frames per second at 1280X1024 screen resolution with everything at stock except for the memory which uses ever so slightly tighter timings than what is on its SPD.

Well I have much the same rig as yourself, and am having exactly the same problems

OS: Windows XP
CPU: P4 2.8GHZ HT
RAM: 4 X 512MB DDR400 Corsair Cas 2
Graphics: Leadtek 7600GT AGP
Mobo: Asus P4E800 Deluxe
HDD: 1 X 320GB
Case: Antec Sonata

Whether I'm running at minimum settings 640x480 or everything maxed out at 1280x960 I'm consistantly getting around 15-40 fps. Strangely I seem to get better performance at 4x AA/AF 1280x960 than I do at absolute minimum settings... go figure.

I realise my cpu/ram/mobo needs a major upgrade, but seen as games like fear play fine (or much better) at mid-high settings I can help but think theres some obscure setting I've missed that will help me.

Ive done all the usual driver updates etc to no avail. Does anyone have a 7600GT that isn't getting piss-poor fps? I assume it has to be a down to my cpu/mobo because otherwise everyone with a 7600GT would be crying foul.

Theres another guy with the same issue here:

au.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26072001&page=0

So whats the consensus, give up on it and just sell a kidney and upgrade, or do you think we have a resolvable performance issue here?