Reckon that a C2D E5400 + RX460 2 Gig Would do enough to be worth My time/power?

If you can get it all for $50 or less.

Edit- A quick look shows the RX460 is rated for around 100W. For a bit under 50% better performance a GTX 1050Ti is rated at 75W.
Of course finding a GTX 1050Ti for less than an arm or a kidney might be rather difficult until the Crypto boom bursts.

My AV had lost it's mind after the windows update...Need to find a new Free AV.

Windows defender has worked well for me

Likewise, but it depends on your needs. If you go to risky sites, or have people that insist on sending you emails & links to sites because they've been told "This is important, send it to everyone you know..." then you need heavy duty protection.
But if you don't go to Free software or Porn sites, and don't have people continually emailing nonsense, Windows Defender is more than adequate. Both my parents have hundreds of people on their email lists, and are always getting all sorts of infected emails (or links to infected sites), so they need better AV protection. Unfortunately those programmes all seem to result in a pretty hefty performance hit scanning everything on the fly.

Still Borked. Tried Everything I can Think of.

Even with the settings in the Hosts file?

Did you run the BOINC repair option from the BOINC install site?