Hello, and thank you for the support. I am looking to buy a new cpu (along with mobo, ect). I seem to be going in nothing but circles. I know that I want an AMD 64. I've been told that cpu speed is different between Pentuim and AMD, and 3.0 ghz pentuim, is not 3.0 ghz AMD. Does this have to to with the fsb? I mean I saw an AMD 64 cpu at only 1.8 ghz with 2000 fsb, going for about $150.00 and right now I have an amd duron that runs at 1.3 ghz, I thought, well why upgrade, thats not a big jump at all. Then I see other cpus (amd) that are like 2.8 Ghz with a low fsb. Is there some kind of euqation I can use to calculate the acutal speed I'm getting. lol, like on the weather "today it feels like 90, but its actually 80".

ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Intel rates it's CPUs by clock speed...a 3.0GHz P4 runs at 3000MHz. AMD gives it's CPUs model numbers that are supposed to be comparable to P4s. So an Athlon 64 3000+ can do as much work as a P4 3.0GHz, even though it only runs at 1.8GHz. Athlon 64s have the memory controller built onto the CPU itself & the system bus is called "HyperTransport" which can run at up to 2000MHz. Intel systems don't have these features...the memory controller for the P4 is built into the motherboard & the system bus is FSB that you're more familiar with. Intel's FSB runs at up to 800MHz. Basically, you're comparing 2 different technologies. http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9487,00.html The AMD Duron is old news/old technology. It's a low budget "value" CPU...it never was meant for performance use. Your Duron only runs at 100MHz (200FSB) I don't know where you saw an AMD that runs at 2.8GHz with a low FSB. The 2.8GHz AMD CPU is the Athlon 64 FX57 & sells for over $1000, so I doubt you'll be getting one of those...LOL Not only that, but there are plenty of other advancements that have been made since your Duron. Better/faster motherboard chipsets, DDR-SDRAM & dual channel mode, SATA HDDs, PCI-e video, etc ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP1

Thank you!