Help please !

[BoffNOT]

I am rather new to all of this so if I write something totally stupid please ignore.
I would like to upgrade my graphics card. I have looked at both nvidia and ATi and been told that I would be better off with the ATi. Now comes the problem ! I removed my old graphics card and found that it had a couple of slots in it so that the contacts were in three parts. Does the card I replace it with have to have the same configuration of slots please.
It is not a new PC, about three years old, with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor. If any other info is required please tell me.
Thank you.

 

[Bran]

Does your computer have a AGP slot? It's usually a different color from the other slots.

 

[mfrostbutter]

AGP-brown
PCI-white
PCI Express- green/blue/red

Being that your computer is a P4 you "should" have an AGP slot, it'll be the uppermost slot and brown, if not you'll have to get a PCI (not PCI-e) card