I have a E6300 that Ive been running at 465 x 7 (3.26ghz) for nearly 19 months now with non issues.  We even were able to achieve this overclock at a lower than stock voltage (1.24v).
Recently we had a crash during a game (crash to desktop) 3 times in a row. We rebooted the system and the bios had reverted back to stock 266 x 7 (1.86ghz).  Well since this happened the system will not overclock past 333mhz despite repeated attempts over the past few days.
Now does anyone know why this would happen?  Is the cpu just showing age?  The memory was replaced about 4 months ago, but was flawless from the start.
Thanks in advance

Perhaps the MB has gone south in one capacity or another.  Maybe the voltage regulators controlling the voltage supplied to the CPU have gone bad?  I don't know, strange the CPU (and the system for that matter) would still run at 333 Mhz. with a bad CPU.  Obviously some aspect of your hardware has weakened or gone bad.  Everything running on the system BUS is affected or subject to stress that goes along with upward changes in the BUS speed.  Something like a MB voltage regulator or even a video card or video card memory seems more practical to me than the CPU.  I would try spare parts including video card and even RAM.  I had a system fail once and I thought it was the MB.  Bought a new MB.  Then thought it was the CPU.  Bought a new CPU and that worked.  Picked up that 'bad' CPU years later and installed it in a board for grins and it worked!  I've found it hard to kill a CPU unless you overvolt it and smell it die.  8)

Knowing the OP's tech level, I'd assume she has done all the basic steps of OCing, such as laxed ram timings and such.
 
I recommend removing the CMOS battery and letting the the motherboard sit for awhile, or any way that's similar. Assuming that doesn't work, I suppose it's reasonable to assume it's the cpu or the motherboard. Check for any blown capacitors.

 
Why would I lax ram timings when the system has been fine for a year and a half.  I guess Im just gonna have to live with it until I upgrade.

Ram getting old, that's why. Stressing them too much will shorten the life you know.

Ram is 2 months old and its designed to run faster than what I am using it at.
I had ocz in there for a year and a half with no issues and sold it to someone else.

Ok, after reading what you said about stressing the ram, I figured it out. I went into bios and rechecked all my settings and notices somehow SPD got changed to auto and was trying to run my ram at 1000mhz.  I set it back to 2 (800mhz) and everything is fine again.