So what is the difference between the AMD 64 and the AMD 64 FX series besides the huge price tag? ;) I was thinking about getting an AMD 64 3500, but would that be a jaw dropping performance increase from an AMD Althon 3200? Thanks

No it wouldn't be jaw dropping. You should be able to OC your 3200+ to near that of a 3500+ I would have thought. The Athlon FX is an absolutely insane CPU. It will drop your jaw, no doubt! I've seen people running them at 3300mhz! Plus, some of the benchmarks are frightening. 3700+ on 3DMark 2001SE and 100,000+ on Aquamark 3. It's getting quite silly really!

Do you mean to say you currently have an Athlon XP 3200 and your considering upgrading to a 64 3500+?
I have an XP 3200 and have been told it is a big performance difference... Have not gotten one though so have not seen it

ahh, I didn't spot that. So you're upgradinf from an XP Barton (32 bit) to a 3500+ 64 bit? Then you should see a difference, no doubt.

Man I still havent figured out how to overclock, if I make my settings any higher my pc wont boot up then I have to reset BIOS.

Try lowering the Multiplier then raising the FSB. Remember to raise it slowly. You might also want to apply slightly more voltage to the CPU. Also monitor the CPU temp after OC to ensure you're not frying anything.

Which one is the multiplier?

The multiplier is probably set at 10.0 or 11.0. Lower it to about 1 below what it's default is and try upping the FSB by a few megahertz. If it's stable enough, try raising it another few and so on. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR HARDWARE TEMPERATURES! Strange as it may seem, even with the CPU clock running slightly slower, you can still achieve better benchmarks because of the increase in throughput to the FSB. Increasing the Multiplier without changing the FSB won't have the same performance increase

Thanks, when logged into BIOS I see some of the following options:

CPU CLOCK: 166mhz
AGP CLOCK: Auto
CPU RATIO: Default

So the Ratio is the multiplier, and I should increase the clock which is the FSB? Thanks

The best way to do it is increase the FSB slightly, becuase this improves the whole system, not just the CPU. Try going up to 170 to start with and then going up incrments of 2 mhz. When the system beomes unstable it's time to stop, or up the voltage slightly.