Upgrading to a larger CPU is easy. The more important question is does your mother board support a higher CPU.
First you need to find out what socket your mother board has in it. The easiest way to do this is to download cpu-Z.
http://www.download.com/CPU-Z/3000-2086_4-10518374.html?tag=lst-0-1
Click on the mainboard tab and record the Manufacturer and the model info. Next, I would suggest going to the manufacturer's sight and looking up what the board will support. If that doesn’t work you can always Google the manufacturer's info. This should give you a good idea of what you can put in it.
While your there you may also want to look into upgrading you memory. With a system that is running a 550 P3 you most likely only running 256 meg if that. At the very least I would suggest going to 512 meg and make sure you are getting the correct speed the memory uses. A 550 P3 would most likely use 100MHz or 133MHz.
As for the question is it worth it. If you have a system that supports 133MHz FSB, Socket 370 you can put in a 1.4G processor for a little over a $100 (pricegrabber.com). That’s a big jump. A computer now a day’s that has a 1.4G is considered old and would only be good for surfing the net and word processing. None of today's games would support that type of system.
Here is a sight that might help you out:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,111243,pg,1,00.asp
Nate, July 2006
