Jordan,
I'll chime in since I have had a similar situation to you. I formerly ran the Intel q9400, at stock 2.66 with a GTX 550 ti gpu, 8gb ram. My avg FPS were in the teens in all flying conditions, especially when free-track was on. Add ground war, extra planes etc and the FPS went down to like you said, 2-6 fps.
I OC'd my Q9400 to 3.2 and the fps went up to low/mid 20's and under heavy taxing 8-12fps was common. (playable)
About 3 weeks ago I swapped my MOBO, processor and ram out for an Intel i5 2500k, a gigabyte z68, and 8gb ram.
I spent 159 on the processor (sale), 100 on the MOBO (discount rack) and 35 on the ram. With the same settings on the game, I easily got 60-80 FPS. I have since turned up most all the settings to high or medium and still average 40fps with lows in the 25-30 range.
I'd suggest the overclock until you have a few hundred dollars, get the i5 2500k, use the 150 you save from the i7's on your mobo and you're set.