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What To Look For
Recommendations

Recommendations:

Choosing between Intel and AMD is a personal preference. For more information on choosing between the two platforms, I suggest you read the CPU Recommendations page.

• AMD Athlon 64 FX Motherboards
• AMD Athlon 64 Motherboards
• AMD Athlon XP Motherboards
• Intel Pentium IV Motherboards
   
• Athlon 64 FX Motherboards:
  Thees motherboards are hard to come by and a little pricey.  They also require Registered DDR400 memory instead of the typical unbuffered memory.  Few are available at the time of this writing, but good ones to look for use the nVidia nForce 3-250Gb chipset.  It's possible these boards may actually perform slower than the Via K8T800 chipset, but Via has had a history of problems compared to the nForce chipsets. Many have been very successful with that chipset however, and if you do want to give one a try, I'd suggest the Asus SK8V motherboard.  If you want to play it safe, then find a motherboard with the nForce 3-250 Gb chipset, such as MSI's K8N Neo Platinum motherboard.
  
  Athlon 64 Motherboards:
  With little difference in performance between the nForce 3-150 and Via K8T800 chipsets, I would strongly recommend the nForce 3-150 chipset motherboards simply because of their reputation for stability and quality. A couple of good choices here are the Chaintech ZNF3-150, AOpen AK89 Max, and particularly the Gigabyte GA-K8N PRO. (or for a little extra money, get Gigabyte's GA-K8NNXP which adds all kinds of unique features including their DPS technology to improve stability, a "backup power" system, and more.
  
  Athlon XP motherboards:
  If you are going to use an Athlon XP CPU, I suggest using motherboards based on the nForce2 chipsets (particularly the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset). These motherboards are very fast and stable. nVidia is a relative newcomer to the motherboard market, but they have consistently produced high quality products from day one.  All of the nForce2 motherboards have been high quality, but I do have some specific recommendations.  Here are the specific nForce2 motherboards I recommend:
• Gigabyte GA-7NNXP or 7N400 Pro (the "K7 Triton" series): These two motherboards are very well-featured and stable boards, not to mention fast.  The 7NNXP costs quite a bit more  ($50 - $60) for the addition of a second LAN port and "DPS technology" which is supposed to improve stability and longer life of the components (this is debatable though). Both include features like dual BIOS (as a backup), FireWire, IDE RAID, and Serial ATA RAID.
  DFI NFII Ultra LanParty:  If you're looking for a fancy motherboard that will look great through your case window, look no further!  Add a black light and you get UV reactive slots on the motherboard and UV reactive rounded cables. Aside from just looking cool, the performance and stability is great too!  Just like the Gigabyte board, it's loaded with features.  It even features RAID 1.5 (a new RAID format that combines mirroring and striping with just two drives [that's reliability and speed for those unfamiliar with RAID configurations] - jury's still out on how well this works, but it's just an extra option if you don't plan to use it).  The only negative on this board is the price. 
  Soltek NV400-L64:  The best feature of this motherboard is its price.  It's a single channel DDR motherboard instead of dual channel (which is generally better). However, in testing, this motherboard performed on par with the dual channel motherboards in most tests and was the best in many gaming benchmarks.  If you're looking for an inexpensive gaming motherboard, this one's a great choice!
  Other good manufactureres of nForce2 Ultra motherboards include Asus, Chaintech, AOpen, and perhaps Abit (they're great for overclocking, but Abit has had reliability problems in the past).
   
• Intel Pentium IV Motherboards:
  The two best chipsets for Intel's Pentium IV are the 865PE and the 875P. Which is better? Neither, really. They both perform about the same despite Intel's assertion that the 875P is faster due to its "PAT" memory access. Many manufacturers of the 865PE motherboards have activated PAT in their motherboards, so there's really no difference between the two chipsets!  So which should you get?  You might as well get the 865PE and save some money! Here are my specific recommendations on these chipsets:
  
  Gigabyte GA-8PENXP:  I think this board is currently the best overall choice when considering performance, features, and stability.  Like the Gigabyte boards I listed for the AMD CPUs, this one has DPS technology, a "backup power" system, and other features that set it apart from the rest. This comes at a price preimum though, so if you want a cheaper board, consider one of the others below.  It uses the 865PE chipset. Features abound, including gigabit LAN, IDE RAID, Serial ATA RAID, 6 DIMM slots, and 2 FireWire ports.
  Asus P4P800-E Deluxe: Asus has always been a great motherboard manufacturer, but lately I've started to use Gigabyte's boards more. Nevertheless, this is still a great motherboard, and cheaper than the Gigabyte too.  It uses the 865PE chipset. 
  Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 PRO-G:  If you want a great, inexpensive board, this one is a good choice.  It has most of the features you'll need along with a low price tag and good performance. It uses the 865PE chipset.

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What To Look For