What's important is that the OP has been able to obtain a most detailed, comprehensive and definitive answer to his original question, thanks to the always civilized, enjoyable and well-informed ET Hardware Forum Community.
This thread is on drugs. Every video card > $50 has 2 outputs at the back... Usually one classic VGA and one DVI. You don't need splitters, etc. Just connect a monitor to each port on back of video card... One using a standard cable... the other a DVI cable... And XP does the rest using the "extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" checkbox. The quality difference between the 2 is almost imperceptible for any standard app.
I want to thank everybody for the help and explanation. Matrox 14400 is too expensive . The best thing might be just buy PC with slots which will accept dual or quad card. I think that all PC's with nonintegrated video card are good candidates for that swap. Would be possible to add dual card to existing video card and get triple monitor capability ? thanks, hombre
Therefore replace original card with two of the same maker duals ? What would be the most bang for the dollar in dual cards ? thanks, hombre
The best multi-display for trading would be Nvidia Quadro NVS 280/285. The next best would be Matrox G450/550.