I pity your wife. By the time you decide which restaurant to go to the poor girl will starve to death! Get a retail A64 3000 and a stock Chaintech N3-250 board at Mwave.com.
$216.00 for the CPU and the board is on sale for $69.00. That is $285.00 for the works. Get some PC3200 and have them test the set-up before shipping for an extra $9.00.
If you don't build an A64 now you will be whining about this time next year about not being able to run WinXP-64. If you want a 32bit system on a budget, the XP-2500 and the ABIT NF7-S are a great combo for $165.00. Easily clocks to XP-3000+ and is surprisingly fast. I love that board with Mushkin Basic Green! Damn near as fast as my stock 2.8C P4 was. Today I'm ordering the MSI K8N Neo and an A64 3200 for my nephew. He needs a fast gaming machine that will get him down the road for a couple of years. Any questions?
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!