Building a New Computer

I rarely post in or visit the tech. boards, but I imagine this question is pretty common amongst the lesser knowledgeable Anonymi: What should I buy/look into if I was interested in making a moderately good gaming computer?

My old one, which a friend put together, lasted me for about three years (seems so long) but allowed me to play games like HL:2 and the like with full graphics with no lag whatsoever. Recently, to my dismay, the power supply died and brought the motherboard with it. And I figured instead of replace the two, I could just build a new computer.

It'd probably be too much to ask if I were to hope for posts detailing what parts to get, etc... Instead, if you wouldn't mind, a rough summary of your own current system specs if you have a gaming computer would suffice. I'm not really looking for the omigod four-video card and 4tb hd computer set-up; a simple few month-year old mobo, one graphics card, etc, list would work just fine.

If anyone does help, I'd appreciate it if this didn't turn into a brand troll fest. Thanks.

Trust me, I asked the same question and every one was like, "Yeah, just buy like 5 512video cards, 8 flat screens etc." My only asvice is to go to newegg.com and browse through products until you find what you need. For things like video cards, the reviews (if the product is at all good) will say if it can play games like Oblivion at max settings etc.

My computer is:
Standard grey case, 3.2GHCPU, 256video, 2gigs of ram, and an 80gig hard drive. The motherboard is some generic thing that had good reviews. Just remember that the power supply that comes with most cases is usually not enough power.