One motherboard faster then another

[benwilj]

i have a hp slimline s3200n pc with a external 600W ultra X3 modular PSU and galaxy 9600gt slim video card, and i want to build a nice htpc to watch blueray rips the rips are generally around 6-12 gb files. my question is does the motherboard have a noticable impact on performance. my current motherboard is a (AM2)Asus M2N61-AR mini-itx and im thinking about getting a (AM3)Asus M4A78-EM. If i use the same CPU, will i notice improved performance?
>Athlon 64 X2 (B) 4800+ 2.5 GHz (65W)
>2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second)
>Socket AM2

BTW the new Motherboard sports a AMD 780g chipset with hdmi out and i read you can boost the vid mem to 512mb. my Galaxy 9600gt only has a DVI and S-vid

video card link: http://www.galaxytechus.com/usa/product.aspx?serial=33

new motherboard link: http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=181&l3=902&l4=0&model=2845&modelmenu=1

hp motherboard link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01321559&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3548658&lang=en

 

[benwilj]

The motherboard comes in two options:
1) AMD 780 g chipset
2) NVIDIA 8300 gt chipset
I choose the AMD due to better Blue ray play back on test and lower wattage at idle i believe. the both really close though.

Also the htpc case is a micro atx form factor.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204030&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Cases+(+HTPC/Media+Center+Cases)-_-NMEDIAPC-_-11204030