PSP 3000 can't play downloaded games? Help me please!

I have just bought a psp 3000 and i was expecting to be able to play downloaded games on it... But I read through countless articles on the web they keep saying that you can't play homebrew on it and you can't install custom firmware on it... Is this true? if any of you guys have a solution for this i would really appreciate it! I would rather spend days trying to download games than shelling out hundreds of dollars for buying new UMD's and have to keep all of them in my pocket! Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this!

what is your firmware on it? if it is above 5.03 then i believe that you can't downgrade from there. don't upgrade either.to play isos (and homebrew) on a 3000, you need chickHEN and some other stuff...i'm unsure cause i don't have a 3000.but here is a guide i saw yesterday. - https://www.romulation.org/forum/index.php?topic=29022.0;topicseenhypnos knows more about the 3000 or any of this more than myself. i have no idea how chickHEN works, as i have never needed to use it.