Hi all,

I have a MSI k7 pro via kt 266a mobo with an athlon xp1600, served me well, however time has moved on.
1/ MSIs website states the max cpu my mobo can take is xp2100 (upgradeing cpu would be cheapest option). Does anyone know any different?

2/ There are some good "bargains" in mobos, as low as 80 bucks Australian, able to take an AMD 64 3200 , based on SIs chipsets. Of the chipsets available, eg, Sis , Via , nforce, are folk noticing any "real world" difference between them.

I occasionally edit and render video-rendering times not a key consideration and occasionally play Lomac and Il2 flight sims. Thats it. Apart from surf the net.

Your input appreciated. Thanks

i just bought an ecs N2U400-A MB, i already had a couple xtra processors so i didnt need to get the combo, but if I had got the combo, i beleive it came with an athlon xp 2400+ for around $100 american. so far i am very happy with the quality and performance of this new board. BTW, it is an nFORCE2 board

For an AMD64/socket-939 the board of choice is currently MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum.
The socket-754 will be faded out shortly, -939 is more future-proof. I'm getting an Abit AV8 3rd-Eye, which I won in a competition. Not my first choice but seemingly very acceptable. Go for the Winchester 90nm AMD64-3200.

looks like a lot of AMD lovers here
I stick with the Intel stuff every white box I built with intel is still running the AMD's have all died or have constent problems from Abit to tyan and MSI

BEWARE of "bargain" motherboards...they are not what you bargained for, I know from experience. You should consider a stronger processor considering the AMDs are so cheap, this way, you will have a nice "cushion" of space to not crash under heavy loads.