yes i had this card in my last pc it did every thing i wanted and never failed just check whether your pc is PCI or AGP before buying then check the card is the same
the Nvidia will certainly be better, however in my opinion ATI have the adge when it comes to multimedia cards (Nvidia are better for gaming) this hold especially true if you are wanting to use a HDMI outputs on the cards.
Thanks for confirming that the Rage card isn't up to it. I am not really bothered about top end performance, just need to drive the proposed new monitor and the price is right for the NVIDIA one.