Picking a main board and memory

Motherboard:
ASUS P5Q SE/R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131335

= $95 or $80 after rebate

and CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115206
$120

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116072
$73

This latter cpu is definitely the best bang for the buck - overclocks to 3.5 Ghz all the time, and sometimes as high as 4 Ghz - just a bit less cache memory, but for a budget system your processor speed will make the biggest difference. Used the saved money on GPU, it is the most important part for gaming.

However you said you don't overclock, so you're gonna be stuck with much lower performance, but then AMD is probably a better choice.

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103773
$75

Motherboard:
BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813138128
$99, $89 after rebate

There are lots of other 790GX AMD boards, but the above is the cheapest and the other brands are really no more dependable, so unless you're a fan boy or looking for specific extra features its a good deal

Again, use the extra money on the GPU, in gaming it is all that counts. You could buy a 2.0 GHz processor and combine it with a Nvidea 9600 GSO - 9800 GT or ATI 4670, 4830. These setups would smash an overclocked core i7 at 4.0 GHz and a 9400 GT for performance in most games. The 9800 GT or 4830 being the best picks in GPU for your above system.

Good Luck!

In that case I would definitely say AMD as long as the motherboard is AM2+ compatible. This is because Intel is shifting toward the LGA 1366 socket (Core i7) from the LGA 775 socket (core 2 duo, quad). The current LGA 1366 socket motherboards start from $200s up. AMD motherboards on the other hand will work with their newest chips as long as the motherboards are AM2+ compatible, so look for AM2+ compatible motherboards, these are either 790GX or FX chipsets, however FX are more expensive and not necessary. Then you can upgrade down the line to an AMD phenom II processor and either a beefier graphics card or an ATI crossfire dual GPU configuration.

Discoduck

I don't do FPS games ...ever. I am an MMORPG gamer. I do alot of RTS type games too but nothing so grphics heavy as the FPS games are. I know the GeForce 9400 would suck for FPS but don't think I need anything bigger than a 9400 at this time for games like Darkfall(due to release this month suposedly) , WOW, Eve, Vanguard or Mass Affect.

nerrawg
I don't typycally bother with intel architecture when building gaming machines. I have always prefered AMD for this purpoose.
From all the reading I have done about duel graphics cards I cant see doing that to be much advantage for the types of games I generally play. For now I am gona stick with the 9400 hell its only $50 and it meets my finatial and graphics demands for the time being.

So for now i am looking for a 790gx motherboard and probably a phenom II duel core processor in the 2 GHZ range.

got any sugestions on this?

Good choice there with both the cpu and motherboard. If you ever want to oc the cpu it should be really easy because all you have to do is increase the multiplier. Also gigabyte boards are generally very solid. If you later upgrade the GPU will most likely see the best increase in performance in newer strategy games like supreme commander, world in conflict and the upcoming Empire Total War, however the games you listed above are much older (or use older rendering tech) and should run very well on your proposed rig.

any sugestions for memory for this rig.