Aggghhh!
Never EVER EVER EVER EVER buy namebrand computers! They all SUCK DONKEY ARSE!
In any case, try this on for size:
I priced out a full, custom system (minus monitor) for a friend…
2.1Ghz, 512M RAM, GF4Ti 4400 (video), ASUS Motherboard (THE BEST!), Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (audio), 100Gb Western Digital HDD = ~$800
Have the kid nextdoor build it if you don’t know how to operate a screwdriver. 
Well, that’s not true.
Support, especially for non computer-literate people, is worth the money.
Dell is not bad. Gateway… not as good as Dell. I never really trusted them after the old days when they used to ship remanufactured parts in their new computers.
Basically, A: yme is a rude person who is not qualified socially to provide technical support, and B: I’m willing to walk you through your choices on upgrading, replacing, or managing your existing computer. From your description, it seems aged enough that, truth be told, replacing may be the best choice.
Babe, you got rooked. I’m sorry, but you did. But we can get you something nice. Maybe four hundred bucks and change.
Oh. Don’t count on the cable working with that amount of memory. If you are going to hold off on replacing the computer, then getting more memory is the first order of business. It’s very simple to do.
Two freakin’ grand?!? Where’d he buy it, from that kid in the white van full of speakers?!?
In 1996, I spent $2,500 on a P75 with an 850 meg HDD, 4XCD, 13" monitor and an additional 8Mb RAM to bring the total to 16. Oh, and a printer.
In 2000, I spent $1,200 on an AMD-450 with 13Gig HDD, 40X CD plus a CD-R/RW, 100Mb ZIP, 17" monitor and 128Mb RAM.
Two months ago a friend of mine set me up with a P4 1.5Ghz box with 512Mb of fast gamer RAM, 40Gig HDD and 10/100 NIC, all of which he assembled from spare parts and sent me for essentially the cost of shipping.
At this rate, I figure next year sometime somebody’ll pay me to haul off their old CRAY.
Guys, we’re here to help Anubis, not to make him feel like a berk.
Don’t worry. You can keep the old monitor, which will save you money.