Sempron Socket A Compatibility with old Athlon XP MB

[nenforcer]

I was recently reading about how AMD renamed or rebranded the late Socket A Athlon XP Barton core processors as Sempron 3000+ and Sempron 3300+.

Does anyone know if you can just drop one of these processors in an older Socket A motherboard like my ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe without requiring a BIOS update?

The ASUS cpu support list for my motherboard does not list ANY Sempron processors as being supported but all of my reading indicates that they are simply rebranded Athlon XP processors.

Also, does anyone know if you can drop a FSB 400 Barton core processor into an even older FSB 266 motherboard and if it will work? Does the motherboard just run the multiplier slower or does the CPU not function at all?

Thanks.

 

[Stumps]

IIRC your A7N8X should be capable of running the 333mhz and 400mhz FSB that the last of the Athlon XP's (Barton) used...I know my old GA-7N400 pro NF2 based mobo certainly could support those as it is still running an old 3200+.

as for the Semprons...you will need a BIOS update for full support with your mobo...however it should just recognise the sempron as an "Unrecoginsed Athlon model XXXX" or something similar and still be able to boot.