I can't tell you what sort of performance you'll get out of Poser with such a rig (though it'll certainly be better than what you have now). I can, however, talk to you about expenses.

Right now, an Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz processor can be had for a little over $200. The 2GHz version is over $400.

A top-of-the-line AMD Athlon XP 1900, which can hold its own against Intel's finest, is about $250.

As for memory, it depends upon what you want. Pentium 4 motherboards need RDRAM, and although it has plummeted in price recently, 4GB of RDRAM will still set you back about $1600. Athlon systems can use DDR memory, which is much cheaper: 4GB for about $880.

Most motherboards can't support 4GB of memory. Before you buy, check the stats.

These prices were gathered this evening from pricewatch.com, by the way.