If you go into the BIOS and turn off the splash screen at bootup by disabling "Full Screen Logo Show" under Advanced BIOS Features. Now, when you boot up it will show which version your BIOS is running at, along with a bunch of other info about your machine. If you have a rev 1.04, you could have anything from 1001G to 1004. The latest version is 1007. It seems to be working pretty well on my machine, but I'm not OC'ing right now. If you are looking to do that, an earlier BIOS version might be better. I'd check this forum to see what BIOS gets the best results in that case.
When you download the BIOS, make sure to get the one for rev 1.04 and 1.06 boards. There is a different series (which all all designated with a "C" before the revision number) for the rev. 2 boards. Be sure to double check and read the description before you download to make sure you are getting the right one for your revision.
When flashing an A7N8X you have no less than THREE choices of how to do it.
1) If you have a floppy drive you can go though the nstructions on page 39-43 of the motherboard manual. Basically you make a bootable floppy, copy the AWDFLASH program onto the disk, boot from the floppy, copy the AWDFLASH and BIOS binary file (the BIN file, not the zipped version) to your root directoty and then run the AWDFLASH program. Make sure to download the latest version of this software from ASUS's website along with the BIOS file, as they are always teaking the utility and using an old version with a new BIOS can lead to a bad flash now and again. The only problem with this method is that if you have formatted your C: drive in NTFS, DOS won't be able to read or write to it. I'm not sure if the BIOS file will fit on a floppy with the AWDFLASH and the DOS system files anymore (my system doesn't have a floppy, so I haven't ever actually used this method), but if they do I think you can still flash with the files on the floppy. I'd double check first. Anyone else got any input on this method?
2) The motherboard has the AWDFLASH built into it, and if you hit alt+F2 during boot up with a floppy in the drive containing the BIOS file, you can flash with this utility. The only big issue is that the original version that was built into the board would not work if you were using a USB mouse. I think they have fixed that, but since I am floppyless I really didn't read up on the fixes for this issue, either.
3) You can use the Asus Update utility for windows. I have to do this because I neglected to put a floppy in my machine. It actually works pretty well, but it is a LOT riskier than flashing the BIOS from DOS, since you always have the risk of the computer locking up when the BIOS ROM is being programmed. Also, turn everything you don't need OFF that is running in the background to minimize the chances of something going wrong (make sure to disable antivirus software). Basically, you just fire up the software, tell it to update the BIOS from a file, tell it where you are keeping the BIN file, and let it start programming. I haven't killed my system using it yet, and I've used it to flash every BIOS version from 1001G to 1007, but I still get nervous using it.
Also, if you have UPS - use it. Nothing ruins your day like a sudden power outage during a BIOS flash. Also, if the UPS service is running, make sure it is not set to automatically power your system down after 20 seconds or so. At the very least, set it for about 5 minutes or so to be on the safe side if the power goes out, or better yet turn the auto shutdown option off altogether.
Like I said, I'm a bit fuzzy on the methods that require a floppy, so if anyone esle could jump in and add anything I forgot it would be helpful.
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