to go 64 or to stay xp

I have a similar pc to you ( changed a bit since i put it in sig) and I think you should hold out. You can upgrade the cpu to a 2400 Xp, the ram is great, get another 80 hard drive and a pci raid 0 card, and you'll see huge performance gains. Also you already have an agp 8x gfx card, and a great one at that.

You could upgrade all that for about £160

XP2000, 256ddr 2100ram, GF4 MX440, XP Pro

Take another look after the nforce 250 boards come out, before you get that barton. I have an xp2500+ @2250 mhz. If you are like me, the A64 is going to stay in the back of your mind gnawing at you. The thing that is saving me the expense is the prospect of a good nforce board.

nforce 250?

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

If your current system is working for you, then don't change.

Just hang in there a bit more, and save your dimes. (you'll need a FEW!)

I haven't read any of the specs on the NVivida 250 boards so I don't know what they are going to have. (Also, I don't take anything as gospel until I see the actual implementations anyway.)

What I am hoping to find available later this year is:
Opteron/AMD64 Motherboard
PCI Express
4 SATA Channels
plus the more usual compliment of stuff

If PCI Express is as near as it seems to be, I think it would be worth the wait.

Is it that near?

Who knows, a while back I thought SATA was that near, and still had to wait a year plus!

As another example, about 4 months ago most people thought Prescott was a couple weeks away.....

If you need a speed bump up to ease the wait, then upgrade your CPU, or upgrade your hard drives.

1 week.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>