Computer nowadays are getting faster and faster in terms of clock speed and memory but dont ever think that your PC is obsolete and need to be replace to be at pace with todays PC. Honestly PC specifically the laptops doesn't improve that much.... two, three year old PCs can be in parallel with todays PCs by just spending a little over $40.00 on upgrades... and you can do it by yourself (dont let the stores do it for you cause it will cost you a lot) and it is as easy as 1 2 3 !! Start with Memory Upgrades.. most PCs can handle 2 to 4 GB of memory and your current PC will have 512 MB,1024MB or 1GB. Source a 2GB Memory from eBay ($40.00 +/-) just take note of PCs Bus Speed in Mhz, Memory Standard Name in DDR or DDR2, Module Name in PC2-3200 upto PC-8533. Dont worry you can find it in your manufacturers website by entering your Product ID. Remove the screws at the back of your Laptop and the RAM (Memory Module) will  be expose to you, put a little force on the clips on both sides and the RAM will pop out. Just do the reverse of what you did and Presto you have a laptop that runs 2GB of Memory that is about $1,000.00 in todays conservative market.(as of Mar. 08'). If you want to add more clock speed then change your CPU (Pentium,Celeron,AMD etc) it has almost the same procedure just follow the instructions that comes with your newly bought CPU and your off and running.Same thing with the hard drive, just remove the screws thats holding it in place then remove the cables attach at its back and  replace with a new/bigger capacity hard drive .Plug it in ... turn it on and Windows will do the rest. Desktop PC is  easier cause you have more room than Laptops.

The good thing is you can sell your old Memory Module (RAM) & CPU & Old Hard Drive  at eBay and almost getting your upgrades at half the cost !!

Remember .... not all new PCs are better than your old one, not all expensive new PCs are best, yours is as good and better than todays PCs with consistent  hardware upgardes (atleast every year) and sofware upgrades (mostly comes free with the manufacturer)

Save your hard earn dollars !!!!