Need Motherboard Advice

[Jovericho]

I plan on making a new system soon with a AMD 1.2 Ghz T-bird 266 FSB and 256 MB DDR. I'm not too sharp in the motherboard area and I need to know which motherboard is compatible with this system, preferably with room to upgrade the processor if need be but that's not a requirement. I'm hearing a lot about the ASUS AV733 (I think that's how it is spelled) but I am not sure on it's compatibility with the DDR ram. Thanks in advance.

 

[Green Man]

You're likely thinking of the ASUS A7V133, but it's a SDR board, and takes PC133. If you want an ASUS mobo, the DDR choices are the A7M266 or the A7A266.
The A7M266 is based on the AMD 761 northbridge and the VIA 686B Southbridge. This motherboard offers superior performance over the A7A266.
The A7A266 is based on the ALI Magik1 chipset. It features multiplier adjustment, which the A7M266 does not. Overall performance, however, is inferior to the A7M266.
If you open you choices to non-ASUS motherboards, there are some excelent choices that offer the performance of the A7M266 and the multiplier adjustment of the A7A266, not the least of which is the EPOX 8K7A which gets great reviews from most people that own one. If overclocking is not your main concern, but stability is, you should consider the MSI K7 Master. FSB options are limited, but it has multiplier adjustment, to a degree, and stability is above reproach. All of the Aforementioned motherboards support CPUs clocked higher than 1.2, so upgradability is an option.