:), just got back with a 9600GT, apparently its better then a 8800GT.
It /can/ be better than the 256MB version of the 8800GT and it's a nice card all around... but the 8800GT is still more powerful.
Here's what Tomshardware.com had to say about it:
Despite the chip having only 64 stream processors, 38% lower processing power, and 33% fewer transistors, gaming performance was only 12% below the 8800 GT on average. And it was even better than the 8800 GT 256 MB, by an amount ranging from 1% without antialiasing, up to 45% with it enabled.
It's really too bad that they don't seem to have any passively cooled cards in that tier -- that's the main thing that's holding me back. The X1650XT was the fastest card I could find that didn't need a cooling fan when I put my current PC together. Fast enough to run the programs I want (although at lower settings for the more recent stuff), but completely quiet.... Not willing to give up the silence for some extra FPS.