Can't boot from CD-ROM

I am having problems all of a sudden with an old Intel BX440 mobo (can't remember exact make) with a P3-450 with 384MB PC-100 SDRAM.

I tried booting from the CD-ROM, wanting to make this old heap into a linux box to play with, but I can't boot from the CD-ROM. I have changed the BIOS, pulled out the HDD, just in case there was a conflict, and tried the CDROM on primary and seconday as master/slave, and no luck anyuwhere.

When the computer starts, the CDROM spins, the light comes on, and then it stops, and after initial BIOS screen, I get an error regarding a missing boot device.

I have also tried 2 different CDROMs with the same effect.

Anyone have any ideas as to what could be happening?

Spec:
Intel P4 2.4B
MSI 645E Max-U Mobo
1GB DDR333
R9600XT 128MB
SB Live 5.1
WD 60GB
Maxtor 120GB
LG DVD+-R/RW
WIN2K PRO SP4

I found the problem, and it was a stupid one at that. I had set the BIOS with all IDE channels to NONE. When I changed it to AUTO, it worked great.

D'OH!!

Thanks anyways.

Spec:
Intel P4 2.4B
MSI 645E Max-U Mobo
1GB DDR333
R9600XT 128MB
SB Live 5.1
Samsung 120GB
Maxtor 120GB
LG DVD+-R/RW
WIN2K PRO SP4