Yup, I bought the radeon back in july 2002.  Had to ask my sister about it just to make sure, cause its the same day I bought her a digital camera.  Yea, I bought one for someone else and I had yet to get one for myself! hehe.  Camera came out to be $300 with taxes.  The card came out to be roughly $220 give or take some  including taxes.  I bought that.. then about a week later the Radeon 8500 came out. LOL.  That was when I had somewhat of a good steady job.

As for PhotoSynth, I don't doubt its stunning perf and experience.   To be honest, I didn't really think I'd get much out of it.  I'm sure though maybe if i gave it time to download all the pictures it might be a different experience for me.