BM, I've got the GeForce FX5200 128mb card on my DELL, and I've got no problems with it.  I regularly tweak things all the way up and get moderately decent framerates.

My card is a PCI card, since I (like you) don't have an AGP slot.  While some here may think this is a problem, like I said, I've been nothing but pleased with its performance.

It does support DX9, and it's WELL within your price range.  In fact, you'd have enough left over to upgrade some other areas if you so choose.

But before you do anything, play with your settings.  If you're getting 60 FPS, then your settings are WAY too low.  You could end up saving your entire budget on the card if you slide the details up.

EDIT:  Also keep in mind that there's going to be a visual difference in aircraft models.  It would be impossible to get an accurate depiction of your performance by looking at the screenshots you provided.  Take two almost identical shots and then you'll see much more clearly as to whether you need to do anything.

Yay! Someone else is in the same situation! lol

I just looked at the card and your right, it looks pretty good.

About the settings; I'm not concerned with the detail of the ground and I have the water settings on their highest...  Also, my chipset doesn't support anti-aliasing or other advanced options in FS, so those aren't eating my frames either...

The real thing I'm worried about is just getting rid of those nasty jagged edges and improving the overall quality of the graphics.  So, if a PCI card can do that for me, then I'll be happy

I think that I might just go with the 5200 if it will make a difference...

I don't know if Intel's Integrated Graphics are all the same, but I have Intel's 845GV chipset which uses them.  This system supports anti-aliasing, but on OpenGL only...

The links:

Intel Integrated graphics
845GV


P.S.- Hyperion, if someone posts a shot of Mike Stone's 727 on here, I will duplicate it to show the difference...