Troubleshooting *** Help Needed Please ***

I see two problems.

Your processor is only 1.3ghz. That means that you need to have a T&L video card.

The Prosavage cards are non-T&L so it would need to be replaced. The second thing is that the prosavage cards are not supported cards. They have an incompatibility with the game and would probably not work even if you had a 2.0ghz or more processor. With BodyShop they caused "invisible Sims" because of the incompatibility.

So, it sounds like you'll need to have a new video card in order to play the game for two reasons (you need a T&L card and you need one which is not incompatible.)

[Edit: oops, I hadn't noticed that you only have 128mb of RAM. That needs to be a minimum of 256mb, so you'll need to get more RAM for your computer as well.]

So, the next thing to know (as long as the computer is a desktop not a laptop. If it's a laptop you're out of luck as they can't have their video cards updated) is "do you have an AGP port on your motherboard, or only PCI slots?" To find that out there are a couple of ways to do that. Sometimes you'll find it in the manual that comes with the computer, usually under "expansion slots/ports/busses." If your manual doesn't have it, you can find your computer on the manufacturer's website and then look up the expansion slot (or port or bus) information on one of the specifications sheets. Failing that, you can look inside your computer. Here's a tutorial on how to do that: http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.asp?qid=3994. Basically there are usually 3-5 "white" slots, one of which usually has your modem card in it. Those are PCI slots. If you have an AGP slot, it is usually between the PCI slots and the processor and RAM areas. They can be any of a number of colors. I've seen black and brown mainly, but my new motherboard's AGP slot is red.

Once you know the answer to that, we can go on to what cards are out there.

If you have only PCI slots (which are slower and for the same card, more expensive), then your best bets are either a PCI Radeon 9200 or a PCI FX5200. They are roughly equivalent cards, although the radeon may be slightly better (but it's very close.)

If you are lucky enough to have an AGP slot, then your main concern is your budget.

You would look for any card from the Radeon 9600 up to the Radeon X800, or any card from the Geforce FX5600 up to the Geforce 6800. And which one you choose is going to depend on how much you want to pay. If I could only spend around $100US, I'd go for the Radeon 9600. If I could afford something more, the best "bang for your buck" is probably the Geforce 6800 (which is usually around $300, only $50 more than the Radeon 9800Pro which they used for the Maxis screenshots, but twice as fast as the 9800.)

There are several sites which show benchmarking for various cards. On this site ManagerJosh has a post about video cards that shows such benchmarking. Tom's Hardware has another one which is very good. Sometimes the stores (like my Compusa) will do benchmarking and have the information available. The advantage of benchmarking is that it lets you see how different cards will work in a common game with all other factors the same (processor, RAM, power supply, etc.) The only thing that it doesn't tell you is how you will feel about the graphics themselves. That's so subjective that there's no test you can run for it. (It's kind of like trying to rate art paintings. It's "in the eye of the beholder" in terms of what they like or don't like.)

Hopefully this will give you what you need to know to get the game going.