Re: Shopping for barebone kits

Moving to anything remotely current with almost definitely require a new
power supply. ATX 2.0 or something like that.

That's the bad news. The good news is that you can do it anyway.
Here's from MicroCenter, although you can probably find equal or better
deals from other etailers.
Motherboard: $55-15 rebate = $40:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=02605
71
Entry-level dual-core CPU: $60
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=02667
59
1GB RAM: $35-15 rebate = $20
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=02396
18
That leaves $30 for a power supply. Not easy to do, but if you can
stretch another $10, then there's this:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=02574
51

ECS isn't the best motherboard supplier but I've a couple of systems
with their boards and they've been fine. It has integrated graphics so
as long as what you're doing isn't too demanding that'll do. It has 1
PATA slot for your existing IDE drive & CD and has SATA ports if you
upgrade the drive later.

CPU: You're not going to save much dropping to a single-core.

1GB RAM should be sufficient. This RAM is rated for faster speeds than
the mobo supports so it should be rock-stable running a little slower.

I don't have much experience with the Antec Basiq PSUs but I did start
using one the other day.