He did not lie really-- at that time many of these were quite decent componenents.
It just so happened that the type of System RAM they used-- was not really accepted by the "mainstream" (video-gaming) community.
With their relentless demand for ever more performance-- they drive the industry -- and so determine what the rest of us can buy. MY video-card is "technically obsolete" also.
Manufacturers would not survive long in this cutthroat market --if they made stuff nobody buys.
It will still run for many years-- but that monitor won't work. A standard-type screen would run fine. I still use a CRT monitor-- which is even older tech

A computer is not like an entertainment system-- you can't just buy the latest components,plug them in-- and it works automatically. In many cases you have to upgrade several other items at once for them to all work together.

What you see displayed on the screen-- goes through the CPU, The motherboard circuitry/ the video card processor (they have their own --called a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) your System RAM/and Video RAM before you see the image. There is also software like your video-card's drivers involved-- everything you see as pictures/video starts as binary code (ones and zeros)

Understanding Your Video Adapter

Whether, or not, we could upgrade the drivers for the video card-- and get those resolutions is something I will look into today-- but I doubt it.

It depends on whether it's a full retail version-- or a "discounted" Dell version ...OEM makers purchase thousands of software licenses at once--the versions some times have added features exclusive to that PC maker-- so they will only legally install on a Dell system.

AVG should be fully your license... and transferrable anywhere. (for one PC)

Dell is fine... but I like to upgrade/fix things myself-- so I personally find them too restrictive-- I can pick out each component according to my budget, build the machine myself-- install my software and away I go.
I am not saying you must buy a new tower--but if you want that monitor type-- you must. It would not be cost-effective to upgrade the current one-- it's nobody's fault-- just the market forces at work.
Video-cards now are not VGA fomat anymore-- they are PCI- express more powerful than VGA by a factor of ten. When I go to upgrade next time-- I will have to change :
The Motherboard
The System RAM
The Video-card
Perhaps the monitor
and will probably upgrade to a faster harddrive too... computers evolve at a fantastic rate.
Gamers start thinking about the next machine right after they get done building this one. A really fast gaming machine can run up to $5000.00-- depending on "how fast you want to go" just like building a hotrod car-- the more you spend the faster you go. Modern machines graphics capabilities are just insane-- compared to even a few years ago

Good afternoon,

Thank you for all of the information. I have to tell you, I don't know what to do now, kind of floundering as it were. I did send an email to the sales rep at Dell to let him know of my problem with the monitor, to say I think they should put a warning on those product listings for people like me so we don't make this mistake and to ask what the return policy is for cases like this.

I have this beautiful monitor now that isn't working correctly because my computer isn't 'whatever-everything' enough for it......bummer.

It must be great to be able to build your own computer, I am sure that I don't have the knowledge to be able to do that right now. Guess we'll have to think about this.

Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you.

Kindest regards and best wishes to you.

P.S.

Just got a return email from the sales rep at Dell, that was fast. He said that the problem that I am having is new to him, that he never heard of it before. (how can that be?, am I the only one?). No, there were others who wrote of it in the reviews at Newegg.

You wrote earlier that you could help me buy just the tower. If I decide to do that, what should I get?

Thanks again!!!!

Give me a few moments to do a little more research-- I used to own that same video-adapter-- but it's been years since I owned an NVidia product. I will concentrate on this issue -- and find out IF we can save the situation-- I am not absolutely certain, yet.
It may be that manual settings in an updated driver for that card will work...

The above quote is from Nvidia forums:
NVIDIA Forums -> Geforce4 TI 4200 and Windows Vista ultimate

The Video card they are referring to has twice as much video-RAM as your card-- 128MB-- yours is 64 MB-- you simply don't have the video-processing power required for the job.

If you want to buy just a tower... I will help you find a good deal... but as I said before-- some of your Dell Software may not transfer over.
Windows XP is not a problem-- but other stuff may be.