Upgrade question
 

Yes, yes another upgrade question!

I can't decided between upgrading with a P4 3E Prescott or going with an Athlon 64 3000+. In either case I'm not looking at going with the newest form factors. I'd stick with 478 or 754 and use Intel i865PE or VIA K8T800 chipsets. Either case I'm looking at 220 to 250 bucks for CPU and mobo. So which what to go??

To make it a little more complex I'm not planning on upgrading my memory or video card at this time. I have an old (fried) AthlonXP setup that was running 266 DDR and a GeForce4 Ti 4200. I know I will not get the best performance running the slower memory but will I run into any other issues?? Thanks!

The A64 is going to be better for gaming, the P4 better for heavy media use (divx encoding, huge image editing, etc). Totally depends on what you use it for. I have the A64 3000, and I love it.

I say go A64 you get more bang for the buck overall

The current batch of A64's overclock more easily without requiring high effort cooling or additional power supplies. Upgrading an old box to P4E's is often enough to mean a new P/S. ~50W higher just for the chip + MB chipset.

Make sure the mobo you choose doesn't impose limitations because of your old memory. Some (especially older 754 boards) use old chipsets and aren't very flexible regarding FSB vs. RAM speeds.

I'd go with sailor's advice. for a box that's used extensively for Photoshop or DVD encoding I'd go with a P4 (& disk upgrade, etc). Otherwise it'd be AMD.

id say go for the amd64 but go for the s939 3000+ chip so you can use dual channel ddr and get the performance gain from that when you decide to upgrade your ram.. just my input.. im running the a64 3500+ right now on the asus a8v board with a gig of corsair pc3200 and its running great for gaming

Did you go for the new 939 socket or stick with the 754?

Don't buy 754 socket. It's already being phased out so go with socket 939. Forget intel for the next couple years they're blowing it.