Games Playable on 2.5 GHz / 512 MB RAM / 64 MB GPU (Circa 2002–2004 Hardware)

This hardware (circa 2002–2004) cannot run any game released after ~2006. 512 MB RAM and 64 MB VRAM are hard floors below modern minimums.

What Might Run (All Pre-2006)

Genre	Titles (Max Settings Likely Needed)
FPS	Half-Life 1, Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom 3 (Low), Far Cry (Low)
RTS	StarCraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires II, Command & Conquer: Generals, Dawn of War (Low)
RPG	Diablo II, Morrowind (Low, 640×480), Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR (Low), Fallout 1/2
Sim / Tycoon	SimCity 4 (Small maps), RollerCoaster Tycoon 2/3 (Low), The Sims 2 (Low, few lots)
Action / Platformer	Psychonauts (Low), Beyond Good & Evil, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Max Payne 1/2
Indie / 2D (Modern)	Stardew Valley, Terraria, Undertale, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight — if ported to 32-bit / low-spec (many aren't).

OS overhead (WinXP SP3 = 150–200 MB; Win7 = 600+ MB — won't boot well on 512 MB).
Integrated 64 MB GPU (Intel GMA 900/950, Radeon Xpress 200) — no shader model 3.0.
Single-core 2.5 GHz (P4 / Athlon 64) — no SSE4, no x64.

Lightweight Linux (AntiX, Tiny Core, Puppy, Lubuntu) + Wine/Box86 for Win32 games.
DOSBox / ScummVM / RetroArch for DOS/Win9x/Console classics.
Browser Games (itch.io, Newgrounds, Armor Games) — HTML5/Flash (Ruffle).
Upgrade: DDR2 RAM (2 GB kit ~$15), AGP/PCIe GPU (HD 4650 / GT 730 1GB DDR3 ~$20–30 used), SSD (SATA, $15). Transforms the machine.

Without upgrades: Retro gaming only. With $50–80 upgrades: 2008–2012 titles at Low become playable.

Computer Games