Overclocking a CPU - AMD Athlon 64x2 4200+ 2.1ghz

[Moraline]

Alright, so I'm a bit of a techie but I never do anything like overclocking so I'm totally a newb here.

Dare I overclock my cpu?
CPU - AMD Athlon 64x2 4200+ 2.1ghz

It has a stock heatsink/fan on it. After doing a bit of reading, the articles say that it's safe to OC it up to 2.6ghz but I'm a bit concerned with that.

Will I need to replace the heatsink/fan to do it? Can I OC it up to 2.4ghz and not swap out the cooling?

Will I notice much of a difference really in performance while gaming if I bump it up from the 2.1 up to 2.4? (I play games like World of Warcraft, Star Wars, RIFTS, and Age of Conan (all MMORPG's) etc...

Can anyone spell out the process for me of OC'ing it? I find the guides all overwhelmingly confusing. I feel like it's not even worth it, on the good chance that it'll screw it up.

Can anyone help an OC'ing newb out?

[Moraline]

Note: I think my motherboard is a socket 939 (not 100% sure without taking it apart and I really don't want to do that.)

If anyone has a website link that's good for checking that sort of thing or knows how I can find out without pulling the system apart, I would appreciate it.

I would like to upgrade the CPU instead of OC'ing but I'm not sure if I can or not and not sure what would be an upgrade to this CPU (on this board.) I can always get old used CPU's for like 20 bucks (or free, I have friends that have this stuff.) I just don't know if I can upgrade or not.

[Serephino]

I'm no expert here, so I can't help with specifics, but I do know the more you OC it the more you risk frying it.  How new is it?  From what I understand, the newer ones can handle it a little better, but I still wouldn't recommend upping it more than a little.  When I was having trouble playing Aion we just upgraded my processor.  You can do that.  A good computer shop should be able help with finding you an upgrade and putting it in for you.  I don't remember how much mine was, but it wasn't too bad.  The individual parts aren't that expensive, except for motherboards.

To look up your system, I believe you go to start, system tools, and then system information.  That's how it works on Windows 7 anyway.   

[Vekseid]

If you can figure out the make and model of your motherboard, you can look up what CPUs it will support for an upgrade.

I generally don't bother with overclocking. Oftentimes something besides your CPU is the bottleneck these days.