The motherboard will be running either a 2500 (Barton), 2600 or a 2700 333 Mhz Processor so should I get RAM that is DDR PC2700, or DDR 3200? There will be some overclocking done. Also should it be CL 2.5 or CL3(3-3-3) I will be buying 2, 256mb sticks Kingston brand.

Kingston and Crucial both have memory motherboard based calculators on their web sites.

Corsair is the only way to go on that mobo, in my opinion anyway, PC3200 or even PC3500 if your seriously overclocking.

STOP don't do anything and listen i'm building the exact same system amd 2500 a7n8x the RAM you want is DDR 2700 @ CL2 not CL 2.5 and Never CL3 the CL stands for clock latency ( bad 2.5 ok 2 fast) ther is a 30 % atvantage over 2.5 with 2. second visit www.tomshardware.com and read about you board and his ram comparison pages to top it off the DDR 400 (3200) or (3500) only support 1 bank of ram if you put two stick of them in they will reduce down to 333mhz thus making the worst than the ddr 333 (2700) @ CL2 BTW try finding a ddr 400 CL2 stick then aint here yet abd the mb company wont official support them He benchmarks all tests and DDR 400 craped out over ddr333 which was rated very well

I hate to burst your bubble, but I am running an XP2400+ @ 2242MHz (11.5 x 195) on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 with 2 x 256MB Corsair PC3200 XMS sticks and I have no probs running my RAM above 333 in dual channel. And if you really want to go that extra step, go for CL2 RAM. www.corsairmicro.com Besides, if you want to run an Athlon at its full potential, you must run the system synchronous, ie. FSB and RAM at the same speed. You might want to read the article again.

wow. another aspect that clowds decisions on matching componants. this whole bit on clock latency is at the heart of the development of DDR technology to begin with. It REALLY DOES pay to read the benchmark reviews. I've also noticed that MoBo makers are picky of DDR-RAM sources at the higher data rates.

any decide for your self but read these articals to help you alone http://www17.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20021111/nforce2-16.html read this first just a quick cut out of the above artical As you can see, some 3D applications gained performance considerably when running DDR400. That's why power users should definitely go for DDR400 memory - even though the advantage is not realized with standard games and applications. People that run high-end 3D applications like Design Review or 3D Studio Max will clearly experience more performance with the faster memory. All others can safely run DDR333 - but no matter which type of memory you want to use, do not accept anything other than CL2 mode DIMMs! The performance gap to CL2.5 is as big as if you exchanged your Athlon XP 2200+ for the 2100+ model! http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20021111/nforce2-02.html the motherboard report http://www17.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20020507/ this ones about ram timing CL2 CL 2.5 etc