Old Dell can't 3D

I have investigated modifying my PC so it will run True Space 7.6, a 3D rendering software smoothly. Right now it sort of stumbles.
The PC will fall out of warranty in 3 months, so I don't see depending on Dell support much longer and Dell tech is telling me now I can't upgrade the motherboard.
PC: Dell Dimension 4600, Four years old, XP home, 4.5 G RAM, PentiumIV 2.66 Ghz, Nvidia GEForce 5200.
I only need the 3D software to render fairly realistic pictures of home interior settings-no animations or games.
As I uderstand it something like Nvidia 6600 is minimum for True Space, I have enough RAM and I possibly need a different CPU.
I guess my question is several part:
Can I upgrade the motherboard anyway, succesfully?
Can I simply modify Direct X settings or hardware settings for the Type of use I intend for True Space?
Any other suggestions?
Dell says I can change my Video Card to Radeon X 1300 which is a low level card.

 

You may be able to get a 3.0 CPU or 3.2 if you can find one.Maybe get a better vid card.

 

Thanks for the info.
Dell tech says the only upgrade is Video Card
XTASY Radeon X1300 512 MB DDR2 AGP.
Don't know if this card is better than the Nvidia 5200.

 

Not familiar with True Space, but you should check out the hardware specifications of the software.

Different generations of video cards have different rendering capabilities, so if True Space requires dx10, you'll need a dx 10 compliant vid card.

As for vid card upgrades, you need to see your mobo specs to see how high you can upgrade to. Does it have an AGP, or PCI-E slot? What's the max bus speed?

As long as you know that, you can go to tigredirect or whatever to get a cheap card that meets your specs.

Also, the X1300 > Nvidia 5200. I'm not up to speed on vid card tech, but I'm pretty sure x1300 is equivalent to the Nvidia 7XXX series of cards which is 2 gens above your 5200.

 

I wouldn't put to much into Dell Techs. I have a Dimension 5150 that had a 3.0 HT cpu - dell said I couldn't do a CPu upgrade but the guys a dell forum said I could go as high as a 3.8 775 HT CPU. It will even handle a dual core 2.8! So just because they say no doesn't make it so.
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_upghw&message.id=130322&query.id=284028#M130322
And for Video cards:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_video&message.id=173973&query.id=284154#M173973
http://www.dellcommunity.com/suppor...ghw&message.id=120551&query.id=284154#M120551