eh, honestly man, Shaders are great. But you have to be careful, I'm running on an ATI Xpress 200, I can run shaders, I can run the cell shading, but honestly when it comes to playing day to day I dont because it lags and I would rather have a fun experiance then a pretty one. I mean, Its great for making videos, but if you can get by looking at lower end graphics in exchange for faster play, you may be better off going with T.C. or somthing.
B.T.W. Your parents sound pretty damn cool, giving 100 bucks to spend on a video game.