Upgrade help/advice needed

[buckeyered]

I would like to upgrade my PC on my own if it is not to complex, I will take any help I can get.
I have changed hard drives, memory, burners and other simple things but I have never attempted
anything like a motherboard and processor.
I currently have a ECS P4VMM motherboard with a Intel p4 1.6 processor.
I have two 256mb 184-pin DIMM DDR PC2100 memory.
I have two 60gig maxtor hard drives and one 200gig western digital. I run winxp home.
I would like to upgrade the board and processor and need suggestions on what to get and how difficult it is to set up. Hardware wise I can do it but if there are jumpers or a lot of changes that have to be made in the bios I would be shakey at doing it without some help.
Thanks for the help

 

[pspada]

the first thing you need to decide is what motherboard and chip you want - which usually ends up meaning "how much do you want to spend". Once you've done so, and putchased the equipment, you'd want to confirm that it works properly, perhaps outside of the case. One major rule here is to RTFM before you begin to mess with the new hardware. Anyway, once you've confirmed it works, then you can swap the mobo and chip in, and add one piece at a time, making sure each is properly "seen" by the new system. Lastly you can move you hard drive in, though it's a good idea to back it up before starting. You'll likely need to to a repair reinstall of Windows XP or 2000, particularly if you've moved to really different hardware, like to AMD, or a completely different chipset on the mobo, as is likely to be the case.