Value Gaming Rig ???

I made a rig that was about the same quality of parts and ended up using a 3700+ processor. It'll run every game out there right now at, or very near maximum settings (for the CPU, not graphics) and you can always overclock it later.

I wouldn't go dual core quite yet as the extra money you spend on it could be better spent elsewhere, like the GPU. That is where your system will see the greatest bottleneck. New games tend to chew through graphics power alot faster than they do CPU speed.

If you are gaming, and not doing a lot of multitasking, you would be better off with a single core Athlon 64. Something like what simplyput has, a 3700+. Even stock that wouldnt hold back a 7900 GT much, if at all.

Keep the CPU the got (I have a 3000+ and i have no trouble), however I would spend the money you thought about spending on a new CPU on getting another gig of RAM. 2GB of RAM is required to play some of the highest games on max settings. I would get a pair of 2x 1GB chips from Corsair. Value RAM - $140 XMS (overclocks better/better timings) $194

Could go with the 939 Opterons - the 144 runs at 1.8 GHz single core, the 165 is 1.8 GHz dual core. These chips both overclock like crazy on stock cooling, the one on the 165 is as good as a Thermaltake XP-90 with a fan, and runs pretty quiet.

Could hit 2.2 GHz easily, maybe 2.4. Asus motherboards aren't phenomenal overclockers. DFI boards can easily get 2.7 or higher out of both chips.

You have a funny name. The 144 is a good deal; for the price of a 3200+, you can get a workstation chip that will overclock to like 2.6+.