I loved playing No One Lives Forever 1&2 on my Voodoo 5 5500. That was the height of my PC building days. Now as a wizened old man, I'm stuck with these Apple Macbook Pros/Airs and they do well enough. But I do miss building my own machines...
FWIW, you can build a fully functional desktop for ~$400 with integrated graphics (that can play most modern games on lower settings), or maybe $600 with a discreet GPU. Less if you go with used parts.
How wizened? If you are close to retiring, maybe you can build a pc and play some games. Keep the brain running, and stay in touch with friends (if they’ll do multiplayer).