I asked my mother for Rainbow Six Vegas for christmas. She got it for me. My graphics card does not support SM3.

Tell me what card to get. I don't know much about the newer cards.

AGP? PCI-E? Either one, you can go to newegg and search for Radeon X1600 Pro made by Sapphire. Its relatively inexpensive, and I am sure can handle what you are looking for. Rainbow Six 3 (the game I have) was made for ATI, so I would assume the games still are. That should mean that the Radeon X1600 (a pretty new card) should suit your needs nicely.

EDIT:

PCI-E
AGP

I've had the AGP version. And I just got HL2 for christmas (of course it handles it on full settings), but Lost Coast, the free expansion level that comes with it, uses HDR, and I can use full settings. It looks fantastic... I'm glad I bought it. I'm not sure how Lost Coast ranks with newer games and newer engines (not much of a gamer myself anymore), but it sure looks amazing to me.

Hey thanks!

I thought this was gonna end up costing me 300 bucks.

I recently bought a 7600gs fir $100. Even moving from a 9800 I can say it was worth it.

Too bad Vegas isn't very good.

X1600 XT or 7600GT.