Hi,
 
I'm hoping that someone can help me out with some advice. I have a P4 3.2 machine (skt 478) and 2gb of mismatched RAM. I am looking for the cheapest possible upgrade. (Mobo & RAM also)
 
I would dearly love an E8200, but my price range is more like the E2200. Is there any point in upgrading to the E2200, or should I save (for another 6 months) for the E8200?
 
Would I even see a speed increase in the E2200?
 
I play lots of games. I do not intend to overclock the processor at all, because a) I am not confident in doing it, and b) I really don't want to blow up my system.

I was in the same situation you are in a couple of months ago. I had a 3.0 P4 with 2 Gigs (DDR) of ram and a X850 Pro AGP. It wasnt really Cost effective to purchase a new AGP card So I bought The Following.
 
Abit IP35-E - $70
2 Gigs or DDR2 - $30
E2200 - $85
9600GT - $120
Used my old HD, DVD Burner, Case, Etc....
 
So for a little over 300 I upgraded and Saw A HUGE performance Difference. I overclocked the E2200 to 3.0GHz and it screams. I know it isnt a great test but My 3d06 went from,
 
3DMark Score - 1715 3DMarks  
SM 2.0 Score  - 882  
SM 3.0 Score  - N/A  
CPU Score      - 867  
 
To (Stock Settings)
 
3DMark Score - 8727 3DMarks  
SM 2.0 Score - 3954  
SM 3.0 Score - 4143  
CPU Score - 1960  
 
To (Overclocked)
 
3DMark Score - 10063 3DMarks  
SM 2.0 Score - 4558  
SM 3.0 Score - 4355  
CPU Score - 2600  
 
That is Over 2x at stock to over 3x better overclocked on the CPU scores.
 
For Me it was worth it and You can always upgrade the Processor later so spending less than 100 on a cpu now is not a bad thing.

Definitely upgrade
 
e2200
p5k-e wifi-AP
 
2Gb 800MHz RAM