Upgrading ancient desktop

[sshake1]

I was recently given a very old desktop (it was going to be thrown away) but I think it may have some slight potential to be a decently functioning computer with only a little money spent upgrading it. It's an old ABS Computers tower running a 1.0Ghz Athlon. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7DX, uses a Socket A processor.
So I looked into upgrading the processor. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=1361The motherboard can support up to the Athlon XP 2600+ with a 266Mhz Bus (but not the much more common 333Mhz bus), but it seems the best value would be an Athlon XP 2400+ which are very common and very cheap on ebay. I've also read that these processors can be overclocked simply and with great success. I have never overclocked a processor before but it is something I would like to try. I don't want to put a lot of money into this but from what I've read so far it seems that for no more than $100 this could at least be a significant improvement over my current computer (a 3 year old Sempron powered laptop). Would I need to upgrade anything else to make this work? The power supply is rated to 300W max so that should be fine right? The system runs plenty cool enough as it is and from what I've read the 2400 doesnt have significant heat problems. I'm not completely computer illiterate but this would be my first time doing any significant upgrades to a computer so I would like any advice I can get. Like I said, I'm not looking to make a major investment but I'll gladly listen to other recommendations if theres something better out there. Thanks in advance.

[Sun-Tzu]

I don't know if I would put any money on this. What will you be wanting to do with this computer? If it's just going to be an office type of computer, you would be wasting your money on upgrading the processor.

What about the memory? That might need some improvement.

Try it out first and see if you can accomplish what you want without having to wait hours for a window to open. If things are just too slow then up the memory. If things are still too slow then go ahead and upgrade the processor.

This will never be more than a general use computer so don't put any money to upgrade it unless you absolutely have to.

[Paul Komski]

A brand new bottom of range Dell costs $269 (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostrodt_200mt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab) and would beat your upgrade hands down. Just something to consider but major upgrades are just not worth it these days with the current low price of most hardware. There are valid uses for older PCs running appropriate operating systems. Ensuring there is adequate RAM will give you much more bang for buck than upgrading a processor. Having USB2 support is really just about mandatory nowadays and that is just one other consideration of the mix.