Wanting to upgrade

[Mombo323]

I want to buy a new maindboard,cpu, fan combo Athlon. Anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0 gh. I am not sure what board to get, Biostar, ECS, PC Chips, Epox, Etc. What is best. I only want to spend about 150.00 for the combo, but there are so many choices I am confused. I Wont be using it much for intense gaming, mostly just surfin the net and running small programs... any advise? 2800? 3000? I have no clue other that I want to stick with Althlon. Also, it the cpu is Athlon XP, will my current version of XP Pro work with it whether it is 32 or 64 bit? I have no idea . thanks

[#43 fan]

Do you want to upgrade to an Athlon XP? Or, from one?
You could buy a Socket 754 retail Sempron [comes with a Heatsink fan] and a motherboard for less than $150.
Some good motherboard names are Asus, DFI [Lanparty's mostly], Gigabyte, Biostar [TForce], with Asus for stability and DFI for overclocking. The Biostar TForce also is good, not sure on their lower end, though a local PC Technician recommends them for reliability.

[Big_Daddy]

You can do it for about $100 if you settle for a slower Semp or a Celeron. Don't overlook refurbed boards. They are usually "user error" returns. I know. I've done it twice.