Either of the boards you mentioned are generally considered superior to the one they will replace. The P4P/C boards are Intel chipset boards, as opposed to the SiS chipset used in the P4S boards. I would opt for the P4P800-E Deluxe. I built a rig on based on a P4P800 Deluxe when they first came out (the "E" model came later), and I was very pleased. I was so happy with it that I picked up a P4P800 SE for a build for my wife, and she's still uses it today with a P4 2.6 Northwood. The P4C800 is technically supposed to be a higher end board because it uses the 875PE chipset instead of the 865PE, but it was pretty much agreed that the very slight gain in performance was not worth the price difference between the P4C and the P4P.
Originally posted by: D3xx
Wouldnt a board with a more recent chipset be better?
...not if he wants to keep using his AGP card. Also, the socket has since changed, so it's not as if he went with a newer chipset that was compatible with his cpu that it would in any way help his upgrade path.