Most effective non-mobo/processor hardware upgrades?

[illram]

Let's say this was my personal computing goal for the next 2-3 years:

work, internet, movie watching (alot of streaming) and playing Civ 4, (or 5 or whatever), occasionally picking up the odd new FPS game and playing it at mid to low resolution with average eye candy settings, upgrading to Windows 7 and still getting fast performance with multiple programs running, possibly buying a blu-ray player.

...and this is the current set up that I would hypothetically upgrade:

Asus p5B-e mobo
Nvidia 7600GT
C2D E6600
2GB DDR-800 RAM
Western Digital Caviar 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA Hard Drive
XP

Is it possible to reach those above goals over the next 2-3 years without upgrading my mobo and my processor? Can I upgrade here and there, e.g. get a new vid card, add RAM, possibly a new hard drive, and accomplish those goals for the next 2-3 years? I am not a performance stickler and am not obsessively comparing 3D benchmarks to the latest and greatest hardware set ups; I just want programs to open when I click them, folders to sort quickly, movies to stream, games to not be choppy at 800x600 but still be sharp, and my PC to not take 20 minutes to boot up. I also do not want to overclock for a zillion reasons, most of which have to do with laziness.

What do you think?

 

[Cutlass]

Adding RAM is typically the fastest and most effective way of speeding things up. So go to the max the motherboard will support. Then you can add a graphics card with the highest performance you're willing to pay for and will work with the mobo. Then instead of switching the hard drive, I'd add a second. And set it up so all my files were stored on the second drive.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

In descending order of noted performance:
New SSD -- this will decrease loading times for everything, and in general make everything extremely snappy. Also the most expensive, with a decent sized SSD running 200USD and up.
New GPU -- will make the most difference in your games. The E6600 is by no means a slouch, and can handle most games just fine. The 7600GT on the other hand is a relic by todays standards. A GTS 250 will be way more powerful, and they cost about 100$ today. If you can find a GTX 260+ for 120$, then its an even better deal as it can handle most games at 1680x1050 on highest settings ( Crysis excluded)
More RAM -- This is most likely the cheapest upgrade. A 2GB set of DDR2 800 costs about 25 USD, and will provide a good boost to system responsiveness. Just dont expect some miraculous increase in speed.

 

[illram]

Excellent, thanks guys.

What ATI vid card do you think is comparable to the GTS 250?

 

[GVBN]

Hd4850

 

[Genocidicbunny]

HD 4850, HD 4770 is also pretty good, and may be cheaper ( as well as have a lower power draw)

Id wait a bit for getting a new GPU though. AMD just released the first of the 5xxx series, and there should ( should) be price drops in the older generations starting soon.