I would recommend that you either pick up a Geforce 4 series card (4200/4400/4600) or a Radeon 9600 Pro. Either of those should run you between $100-150 depending on where you get them from.
I can't give you many specifics as to what manufacturer to get a Geforce 4 from (haven't had an nVidia card since the Geforce 2), but I can give you some general tips.
For a Geforce 4:
*Do NOT purchase a Geforce 4 MX. The MX series are just relabeled Geforce 2's, they're a waste of your money.
*The Geforce 4 4200 64mb card can be had for around $100, and is a very sound card if you're just looking to play Combat Mission and a few older games. Just make sure the one you buy has that DVI connector.
*The Geforce 4 4600's are a fair bit faster and have 128mb of memory. If you'd like your card to last longer, by all means get one of these. Excellent cards.
*I didn't mention the Geforce FX 5600 series because their performance is quite mediocre. A good Geforce 4 will easily outshine them. The newer 5700 Ultra's are quite respectable, but are near your upper limit of price ($200).
For the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro:
*Much like the Geforce 4 MX cards, the Radeon 9600 SE cards are not worth your money. They're the crappy low budget cards. The newer 9600 XT's are ATI's newest mid-range cards, but near the upper limit of your price ($200).
*For ATI cards, purchase either a Built by ATI card, or one from Sapphire. Either of those will be the highest quality ATI cards (in fact, Sapphire produces the "Built by ATI" cards for ATI).
*ATI Radeon 9600 Pro's (make sure it's a Pro) w/ 128mb can be had for around ~$150, and are comparable to a Geforce 4 4400/4600 in raw performance. Anti-aliasing and anistropic filtering performance is far better on the Radeon, and they're DirectX 9 compatible, so that might be something to consider.
*As far as ATI's drivers are concerned, they're far, far better than they were even a year ago. On my Radeon 9700 Pro and my roommate's 9500 Pro, we have yet to have a single crash or problem with any of the recent drivers.
Sorry if that ran a bit long, video cards are a bit of a hobby of mine . Either way you go (Geforce 4 / Radeon 9600 Pro), you'll get a good card that should last you a while. Both options should be had for ~$150 or less.
Edit- Just wanted to address some stuff I missed in the thread.
*ATI cards lack fog table emulation in their windows drivers. This is true. All the smoke effects are still there on my 9700 Pro (even the dust in CMAK), but no fog. It's just one effect, so I don't notice it when playing, but it doesn't hurt to have all the facts before buying.
*AGP 8X cards ARE backwards compatible with AGP 4X slots, so don't worry there. There will be no negative effects on performance using an 8X card in a 4X slot, either.
[ December 11, 2003, 02:24 AM: Message edited by: FallenGod ]