Understanding the compatibility of Athlon and Duron CPU?s, form factors, and various supporting chipsets:
AMD makes three microprocessors based on the K7 CPU core: the new Athlon (aka Thunderbird); the Duron; and the old Athlon (aka Classic).
These three AMD microprocessors come in different physical formats. The new Athlon comes in either the new Socket A or the older Slot A format. The new Duron comes only in the new Socket A format. The old Athlon comes only in the older Slot A format.
Socket A format refers to the CPU?s coming as a bare chip with pins sticking out of the bottom. Slot A format refers to the CPU?s coming encased in a black plastic cartridge with an edge connecter sticking out of the bottom. The Slot A format will eventually be phased out, since their is no funtional reason for a PCB/cartridge format now that the new Athlon and Duron CPU's L2 memory cache is physically integratod onto the processor die.
AMD indicates that the new Athlon Thunderbird or Duron microprocessors are compatible only with the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset (not the VIA KX133) or the older AMD 750 or 751 chipsets. The old Athlon CPU is compatible only with the VIA Apollo KX133 chipset (not the VIA KT133) or the older AMD 750 or 751 chipsets.
The best chipset for the new Athlon Thunderbird or Duron t is the VIA Apollo KT133 (not the KX133.
The best chipset for the old Athlon is the VIA Apollo KX133 (not the KT133).
Most if not all KT133-based motherboards are Socket A type boards, designed for the new Athlon Thunderbird or Du-ron. Most if not all KX133-based motherboards are Slot A type boards, designed for the old Athlon, and should not be used with the new Athlon, even if the new Athlon is in the Slot A format. Most if not all boards based on the older AMD 750 or 751 chipsets are Slot A types (and so can be used with either old Athlons or new Athlon Thunderbirds in the Slot A format).
If you are buying a new motherboard and either a new Athlon Thunderbird or Duron, then you should get a Socket A version of the chip and match it to a Socket A motherboard based on the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset. If you already have a Slot A motherboard based on the AMD 750 or 751 chipsets, however, you may combine it with a Slot A new Athlon Thunderbird. This combination iscompatible,but probably will not perform as well as with a KT133 board. You should not put a Slot A Thunderbird into a Slot A board based on the VIA Apollo KX133 chipset, even though there are reports of people doing so with mixed success. See http://www.athlonoc.com/slottbird_1.htm.
Note that AMD "does not recommend or support use of Socket A to Slot A adapters with any of the Socket A versions of the AMD [new] Athlon [Thunderbird] or AMD Duron processors. Use of such adapters may void the product war-ranty."
For more information see http:// [url]http://www1.amd.com/athlon/config [/url]
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