i just recently figured out that the p35 also supports the 45nm penyrn core processors...

what is the advantage of the X38? PCI Express 2.0 support?...If thats it, while still significant, i might just go for anything top rated out of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ntel+ICH9R
what is the advantage of pci e 2.0 besides a bandwith double...how much performance does that give me?

pci 2.0 will allow the video cards of the future more bandwidth...but since hardly any even come close to 1.0's bandwidth I'd say that by the time you need 2.0, you'll need a new MB anyway.

For todays PCI-E 2.0 cards like 8800GT or HD38xx series, the difference between PCI-E 1.0 and PCI-E 2.0 isnt much, but no one knows about the future cards