Then and Now: Athlon Platforms Compared

Platforms Compared

The following table contains all the important Socket A chipsets :

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VIA KT133A VIA KT266 VIA KT266A VIA KT333
Market launch January 2001 April 2001 September 2001 early 2002
FSB clock 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz
Memory type PC100, PC133 DDR200, DDR266 DDR200, DDR266 DDR200, DDR266, DDR333
Max. memory 1.5 GB 1.5 GB 3 GB 3 GB
AGP standard AGP 4X AGP 4X AGP 4X AGP 4X
IDE interface UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/133
VIA KT400 SiS735 SiS745 SiS746
Market launch August 2002 May 2001 May 2002 June 2002
FSB clock 100, 133, 166 MHz 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz
Memory type DDR266, DDR333, DDR400 DDR200, DDR266 DDR266, DDR333 DDR266, DDR333
Max. memory 3 GB 1,5 GB 3 GB 3 GB
AGP standard AGP 8X AGP 4X AGP 4X AGP 8X
IDE interface UltraATA/133 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/133
AMD760 nVIDIA nForce nVIDIA nForce2 ALi MaGiK-1
Market launch February 2001 September 2001 May 2002 February 2001
FSB clock 100, 133 MHz 100, 133 MHz 100, 133, 166 MHz 100, 133 MHz
Memory type DDR266 DDR266 DDR266, DDR333, DDR400 DDR200, DDR266
Max. memory 2 GB 3 GB 3 GB 1 GB
AGP standard AGP 4X AGP 4X AGP 8X AGP 4X
IDE interface UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100 UltraATA/100

Test Setup

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Test System
Processor AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.66 GHz)Palomino core
Motherboard Ali MaGiK-1 : Iwill XP333-RVIA KT133A : Soyo VIA KT266 : Epox 8KHAVIA KT266A : Epox 8KHA+VIA KT333 : Epox 8K5A+ VIA KT400 : Asus A7V8XAMD760 : Gigabyte GA-7DXSiS735 : SiS Reference BoardSiS745 : MSI 745 UltranVIDIA nForce : Asus A7N266nVIDIA nForce2 : ABit NF7-S
RAM 256 MB PC2700/DDR, Corsair Micro256 MB PC133 SDRAM, Infineon, CL2
IDE Controller KT400 UltraDMA/133 Controller (VT8235)
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400
Network card 3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit
OS Windows XP Pro 5.10.2600Service Pack 1
Benchmarks and Tests
Office applications ZD WinBench 99 - Business Disk Winmark 1.2ct h2benchw
High-end applications ZD WinBench 99 - Highend Disk Winmark 1.2
Performance measurements HD Tach 2.61,ct h2benchw
I/O performance Intel I/O meter
Drivers and Settings
Graphics driver NVIDIA reference driver 29.42
Other drivers Intel Application Accelerator 2.3VIA Hyperion 4in1 4.45Silicon Image driver 1.00.35 Promise driver 1.00.0.14HighPoint 1.22s3Ware driver 7.5.3
DirectX version 9
Resolution 1024x768, 16 bit, 85 Hz refresh
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.