Is that new Athlon 64 chip good? I've read the reviews and it seems like a great chip. I plan to build my own computer in about a year. I hear that the chip is not compatible with some apps/hardware. Would it be compatible with more apps/hardware in a year? Or...should I stay with the Athlon XP. Thanks

I've never used it, but I am inclined to believe that it will be a fantastic chip. Just remember that the 64 bit proc will only function in full 64 bit environment. The program/operating system must be a 64 bit based system. Right now there is none. So even though you pay a high price, the chip will not be any faster than, say, an xp Barton 2700, etc. Don't look for any 64 bit software for a couple of years yet, and by then the 64/chip will be far more advanced than now and it will be time to upgrade. So in effect you have wasted your money. You are better off with a good, fast xp chip.

Umm. No im sorry but the slowest athlon64 is faster then the AthlonXp 3200+ in 32bit environment. Athlon64 is not a "ONLY" 64bit processor, its really a 32bit processor with 64bit extensions. Which means, its a 32bit processor which is compatiable with 64bit hardware. Anyway the Athlon64 is a great cpu expecially in gaming were it can produce up to 40% more frames per second then a competitive athlonXp. On the encoding side, its faster then the athlonXp by about 10%, in office work its about 5% faster and in some scientific programs its either equal or sometimes slower then a AthlonXp. About 64 bit technology, well the truth is many new game developers are already programing with 64bit extensions and we will see atleast a few 64bit games next year but not a real large number. Anyway Windows 64 should be out by summer and so should the faster Athlon64 be out then too. Remember Athlon64 scale very well with speed bumps and therefore the faster one you buy the greater the performance by increasing margins between each Athlon64.

correction i meant upto 30% faster in frame rate.

The A64 is better than the barton in that: 1) it has twice the L2 cache 2) it will run 64-bit apps once they come out 3) it has hypertransport which substantially increases bandwidth throughput But you need to consider that 1a) Twice the cache ain't worth much at these speeds. Even the barton over the tbred is only a 3%-5% improvement overall 2a) no apps out there yet 3a) If you get an abit nf7-s for your barton you can get to 225-240fsb which minimizes bandwidth bottlenecks near as well as the A64 hypertransport And also that A) the barton and the A64 have the same instructions per clock cycle B) the barton actually hits a higher average max ghz than the A64 (they may even out over time since the tbred had the same advantage over the early bartons. So the never-ending goal of buying something cheap and equalling something that is the best is still possible with an unlocked barton and a top end nf2 mobo.

i was reading the other day and it said that windows xp pro is fully compatable with the 64 bit processor.

It *IS*, but you wont get 64-bit performance.