If you take your time, you can "max out" a 9600 very cheaply. I've a 9650/350 and love it, it's also filled to the gills with good stuff
Off eBay I bought a pile of 128MB sticks (~ 2GB in total) for < $50, PCI graphics card was flashed, other PCI cards free. Most I spent was $80 on a 1Ghz Sonnet G4 upgrade. Thing flies.