PCI Express

Many new PCs now come equipped with one or more PCI Express slots on the motherboard. Eventually, PCI Express will make the old PCI standard obsolete, but for now most expansion cards still use the (old) PCI standard.
The old standard (PCI 1.0) had a maximum bandwidth of 133 MB per second.
In the meantime there have been many developments in the computer industry. We can now watch videos over the Internet, as well as listen to the radio. MP3s (also unheard of then) are decoded in real-time, while we might also watch a DVD in another window.