I haven't been keeping up with some of the newer AMD CPU stuff so I'm a little confused... I read the article from Tom's on the phenom not being compatible much with previous AM2 boards but it didn't quite answer my question...

I am looking at upgrading my CPU to a Phenom and my board is an Asus M2N68-LA. AMD doesn't say it will officially work, but is there any reason it wouldn't? Asus seemed to be all over the BIOS upgrades or would it come down to the CPU not fitting?

Basically... Does anyone know of any reason it wouldn't work or am I safe with ordering it and slapping it in?

EDIT: A little confused on this whole AM2/AM2+ thing as well... Are they the same thing basically?

AM2 is old and slow. It will bottle neck your Phenom if it works at all.

Isn't AM2/AM2+ the only boards they even work on?

AM2 has a slower FSB then AM2+ so it will bottle neck.

They made some AM2 boards compatible so noobs will buy up the "cheap old stock that wouldn't sell otherwise."

Not all AM2 mobo's will work with the Phenom. It really comes down to the manufacturer of the mobo to decide if they want to update their respective BIOS's to support the Phenom (which this mobo is made by Asus for HP). If your particular mobo doesn't support it, from the manufacturer's website (or HP's), than it probably won't work. This doesn't mean the manufacturer (or HP) will change their mind later, but currently it doesn't. It's true that the AM2 mobo's have a slower Hyper Transport, but I don't know if its "bottlenecking" the CPU or not. Haven't researched that yet.
This is exactly why I won't buy a pre-built PC anymore. You end up regretting it sooner or later that you bought a pre-built PC, because of the limitations that they put on their systems.