I tried to find an old post from when I asked the same question on another forum, but I can't find it. I remember the answer was basically that when you start o/c'ing quite high, you may find that you get artifacting (or your pc doesn't even post) even though the core temp is well within limits. I can't remember the technical reason behind it unfortunately.
I get the same with my PC, if I crank the FSB higher than about 185mhz, it won't post (even from cold, when the cpu is barely above room temperature).
I would definitely agree with Overclocking_Freak, however, that you should throttle back a bit if you are getting artifacts.
I have to disagree about 3dmark 03 being mainly a CPU benchmark though. 3dmark 03 is designed primarily to test the 3d capabilities of your PC. i.e. GPU, not CPU.
Of course CPU will have some bearing on things, but the effect is not that pronounced as the GPU is doing most of the work. When I changed my 2400 for a 2800 my 3dmark 03 score only went up by a couple of hundred points.
That's why Futuremark also created PCMark - this is specifically designed to benchmark your CPU (and RAM, HDD, etc).
dannyboy