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To the OP, I'd recommend finding the highest frequency your board can support (consult your documentation or HP's website), and get 2 512MB sticks, replacing your current one.
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Thanks for the feedback. I called up HP and their tech dude told me that I had to get PC2700 RAM. I found a sale at buy.com and picked up 2 Viking 512MB sticks for $30 each -- can't wait to try them out, b/c the 256 that came with my computer is unbearably slow.
The HP tech dude also told me that the fancy new dual-DVI Matrox video card that I installed a few months ago was probably using up the vast majority of the factory-installed 256MB anyway -- that confused me a bit...I had always thought that video cards (higher end ones, at least) came with onboard RAM of their own, so as NOT to run off the computer's RAM...am I right/wrong on that one??
EDIT:
Oh, for whatever it's worth, this is the graphics card I upgraded to:
http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/de...pno~974328.asp
somewhat ironically, it cost 33% of what the entire computer did.