Please help pick chipset for gaming build (45 days out to buy & build)

Now that the GeForce 8800 GT has arrived, I feel that I can move forward to buy and build my next personal gaming machine.

I would like to take a fairly large leap from my Prescott 3.0/925X/socket 775 to a quad core. I'll be discarding the motherboard.

My budget is as follows:
(c) quad core -- $280 (Core 2 Quad)
(a) motherboard -- $150
(b) memory 2GB -- $120

I must admit being dizzied by the [B]current chipset offerings[/B]. There are so many chipsets offered by Intel, nVidia, others, that I don't really know even which ones I should be looking at for a gaming build.

Your advice much appreciated. Even if you can just point me in the direction of a motherboard you think fits my budget and gaming requirements, I would be grateful .

Thanks.

If you intend on going SLI, you need an nVidia board/chipset. If not, don't bother.

Otherwise, In My Humble Opinion a P-35 chipset would be your best bet for value/performance/longevity. Pick one from a solid maker (Asus, Gigabyte, etc...) in your price range, and don't worry about it further. I'd offer up DFI, since I absolutely love mine, but those run more than you said you want to spend..

Regarding the still newer chipset: While you can buy one that uses DDR2 RAM, the X38 is designed to perform best with DDR3 memory, which is twice as expensive. I'd recommend this only for the hardest-core benchmarking "Money Is Nothing As Long As My e-Peen is Biggest" builders.

I second Scott's recommendation of a P-35 chipset board from Gigabyte or Asus. Solid boards, you won't be disappointed.