AMD 3500+ to AMD X2 4200+ worth it?

[sc2071]

Greetings,

I'm considering upgrading from an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor to an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (Toledo) processor. I currently have a Socket 939 motherboard, and I am looking for a quick cheap upgrade for gaming (BioShock, Hellgate, etc.). Anybody think this upgrade is worth it? I'm hoping it will hold me over for a year or so, then perhaps if prices aren't too extreme upgrade my motherboard and processor to a quad-core. However, if it is only going to give me a couple extra fps, it's probably not worth it.

Also, does anybody happen to know if an ABit AN8 Ultra (nVidia nForce4 Ultra) motherboard will handle the 4200 X2 alright? Can't seem to find a page on their site to confirm what CPUs the motherboard will accept.

Many thanks for the advice!
-sc2071

 

[myocardia]

If your board has the 6-16-2005 or later BIOS, it will support a dual-core: link. And yeah, if you're running a game that's been written from scratch to support dual-cores, it will make a huge difference. But, for all of your older games, it won't make any difference at all, since each core of the 4200 is exactly the same speed as the 3500's core.