The Motherboard you want to go with is the Asus A7N8X Deluxe. Intel motherboards are several times the cost and don't have that much of a performance advantage over AMD boards. For gaming other key components are the video card, processor, and RAM. Of course AMD I think at a minumum an 2700+ would be good for you. As for RAM, PC3200 and I'd recommend 1gig worth. A brand like Kingston would be good. You could get 2 512 sticks for a decent price at somewhere online like NewEgg.com. Video Card. Well, any ATI will do. I wouldn't go any lower that the Radeon 9600 but I'd recommend the X800 or X850. To really top it off. Using a SATA hdd would spead load time when you dealing with games heavly involved (i.e. Command & Conquer, DOOM, etc.) My setup: ASUS AUS A7N8X Deluxe AMD 3200+ Kingston PC3200 1GB Kingston PC3200 512KB X850 (Video Card) Just my opinion though.
what price range are you looking for?if you want to spend a little money go sli.nvidia is way faster then ati in sli mode,but thats 2 video cards from $700usa-$1100usa.ati is coming out with crossfire but thats later on. nvidia and 2 sli cards is now.go to newegg.com.you will see alot of 939 motherboards asus,abit,dfi,msi gcheck them out read the reviews.it hard to make up your mine.im doing the same thing now.the guy above me is sort of right if your staying with agp,ati is alittle faster then nvidia but the colors are dull and bright.nvidia you can bump up the color its called color vibrance[looks unreal,lots of color]ati donst have any adjustment.what u see is what u get.if you are staying with agp theres this motherboard that will do both sli and agp check it out at asrock.com.mb is a asrock939-sata2 looks pretty kool.lot of positive reviews about the mb.for the processor dont go with anything but a amd.they run alittle hotter then intel but run so fast.go with a 3000+ or a 3200+[they say you can overclock the piss out of the 3200+.that should give you enough to run all games.if you have the money go with the 3700+ san diego 1mb L2 cache.memory id go with cosair xms series if you have the money.pc3200xlpro[they are green and black with leds on the top...timings 2225-fastest around-or they have the same memory with a big billboard on the top of them...tells you volts...timings...temp-i think.if you cant afford that get a match pair set of 512mbx2=1024gb.dont buy them singlely,they work better buying in a pair.the same goes for hard drives in raid 0.you buy to sata drive install them in raid 0 you have double the storage and a faster have drive thats reliable.theres some nice hd[western cavelars s-ata 25ogb drives]on newegg.com...whisper quit and cool.fast drives.one more thing to run sli you need a sli power supply because the video cards need special power inputs and the overall volts are needed but sli rocks.....hope this help you
