If it ain't broke, don't fix it, if you are asking here for specs sounds like you have very little experiance with bike repair, would suggest learning on this bike, fixing what need to be fixed, and saving your upgrade money for tools and a new bike which has a plastic fork.
If you have a 96/97 bike with a 1 inch steerer, converting to a carbon fork will be expensive, you will need a new fork (getting harder to find in 1 inch), A-headset, as carbon forks are not threaded normally, stem, (good 1 inch are very hard to find), and probably a 1 to 1 1/8 converter. none of this will be cheap, especially if you don't have the tools, and have to get a bike shop to do it.
You can find info on old bikes on-line, like here
http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...=470&Type=bike
The spec of the 470 is similar to my first real road bike, I would leave as it unless it needs fixing, just get out and ride it!