My TBird950 usually runs at about 49C under load. This was significantly affected by removing a drive bay cover in the case to allow more air in the front of the chassis. Prior to that it would run at around 52C. AMD has a bunch of thermal specs "AMD Athlon System Cooling Guidelines" on their web site
Hummmm...... my 1.0Ghz runs @34c with MoBo temp @29c. I have a 7300 rpm fan on my heatsink and a kick-ass Antec case. Are you using thermal paste between your Athlon and heatsink? If so, try without it or maybe just an ultra thin layer.
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