I want to get into PC gaming, but can't afford it right now. I'm thinking of trading my laptop for someone's PC. He wants something portable and I want something for gaming, so it's a win/win situation. It isn't great, but it's still better than my laptop. It has an Athlon II clocked at around 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and an Nvidia graphics card. What motherboard does an AMD Athlon II use? I was thinking of using this PC and slowly upgrading it, adding 8 GB of RAM, an AMD Phenom processor and a better graphics card. Would this work? Just, as already mentioned, I can't afford to build an entire PC from scratch right now.

From AMD's website: http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/athlon-ii-x2/Pages/AMD-athlon-ii-x2-processor-model-numbers-feature-comparison.aspx

Thanks. It's a dual-core, which means it uses an AM3 board.

So long as the power supply is high enough, will any motherboard take any graphics card?

No. Check the motherboard specs to make sure they use the proper interface. A PCI card will not work in an AGP slot, for instance.

Most motherboards I know use PCI though. PCI Express works with PCI, right?

no

No, they're two different things. The slots are completely different lengths. If in doubt, read the manuals. PCI-E is backwards compatible between versions but is not compatible with the other interfaces (AGP or PCI).

Which one is best? Like, if I want to know whether this computer as a whole is good for upgrading into a gaming rig, what slot would be best to have? Most cards I see seem to have a PCI Express slot.

All cards use PCI-E these days. It's very hard to find a video card that uses a different interface.

That's what I was saying. The computer is around four or five years old, so it should still have a PCI-E, right?

Check the manuals.

Looking at the date doesn't tell you, you need to see the spec sheet or the manual itself. That will tell you the answer.

I'll check with him later tonight or tomorrow. But, if it is a PCI-E slot and has an AM3 slot for a Phenom, do you think this would be a good trade to get a decent gaming rig going?

Without a spec-sheet, no one can tell you a thing.

I'll get a spec sheet tomorrow or tonight.

Download http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html (it's free) and tell us the model number and manufacturer of your motherboard.

Definitely need more spec details. When I bought my first Core 2 Duo (Celeron E1200, actually) it used the same LGA775 socket as my Pentium 4 based CPU. Even though the sockets were compatible, the chipsets soldered onto the motherboard were not, hence I had to purchase another motherboard.