For socket 462 motherboards with VIA chipsets are cheaper and quite easy to find however they generally lag around 5-10% in performance behind nforce2 boards. First generation nforce boards are to be avoided as they have poor compatibility and stability. For a high end socket 462 - I see that you already chose the second best CPU for the socket - the board to have is Abit NF7-S 2.0 very difficult to find and commanding a huge premium. My all time favorite is Abit AN7 with the same nforce2 ultra 400 chipset that is the pinnacle of socket 462 boards IMHO. Be warned though nforce boards are picky with the memory. If you go the VIA route than Abit KW7 is the ultimate VIA board for socket 462 with KT880 chipset - fully Windows 98 compatible, takes every module of RAM you might have and has no problem with Creative live sound cards. Performance is extremely close to AN7 - within the margin of error. If I were you I would go with something that has a 4 pin power connector and provides the best balance between performance/stability/price.

nd22 wrote on 2020-10-27, 07:46:

For socket 462 motherboards with VIA chipsets are cheaper and quite easy to find however they generally lag around 5-10% in performance behind nforce2 boards. First generation nforce boards are to be avoided as they have poor compatibility and stability. For a high end socket 462 - I see that you already chose the second best CPU for the socket - the board to have is Abit NF7-S 2.0 very difficult to find and commanding a huge premium. My all time favorite is Abit AN7 with the same nforce2 ultra 400 chipset that is the pinnacle of socket 462 boards IMHO. Be warned though nforce boards are picky with the memory. If you go the VIA route than Abit KW7 is the ultimate VIA board for socket 462 with KT880 chipset - fully Windows 98 compatible, takes every module of RAM you might have and has no problem with Creative live sound cards. Performance is extremely close to AN7 - within the margin of error. If I were you I would go with something that has a 4 pin power connector and provides the best balance between performance/stability/price.

Hi, neighbour! 😀 (I'm from Brasov)
Actually, boards with VIA chipsets have been very sought-after in the past few years, and in many countries their prices have increased quite a lot and their availability has decreased considerably.
Things are a bit different than they were 18 years ago, when everybody wanted nForce boards. Nowadays, a large percentage of the retro community prefers VIA chipsets because they retain many legacy capabilities (unlike the nForce).
So, "quite easy to find" is a matter of perspective . I agree that, in our country, they're still easy to find for a very cheap price (but I'm willing to bet that not for long). 😀
Though, with a bit of patience, there is still a chance of finding some good boards on eBay for a decent price.

one more edit: Here's my 730w PSU that I'm currently using.

Your PSU is enough for Athlon XP 3000+ working on 5V CPU rail board.

KT600 only supports single channel DDR, while the nForce2 Ultra supports dual channel.

Dual channel DDR is useless for K7 architechture. But Nforce 2 is just faster.

If you go the VIA route than Abit KW7 is the ultimate VIA board for socket 462 with KT880 chipset

There's no ultimate board on KT880 chipset. They all are flawed in different ways.

I found an ABIT NF7-S2G socket A board on ebay for around 42 or best offer, though it's "used and untested" and doesn't accept returns which makes me leery. Worth it? Leave it be? Post it here so someone else can grab it? HA.

tomexplodes wrote on 2020-11-06, 02:04:

I found an ABIT NF7-S2G socket A board on ebay for around 42 or best offer, though it's "used and untested" and doesn't accept returns which makes me leery. Worth it? Leave it be? Post it here so someone else can grab it? HA.

Untested... $20 at most shipped... And that is if it is a board I really want.

KT333 is the gold standard as they are the latest with 3.3v AGP, and some even support DDR400 (not dual-channel though).

I wouldn't run any system I paid good money for on an old 5V-heavy power supply from 2002, no matter how good the PSU supposedly was back in the day. Not unless you plan on replacing the capacitors inside such a PSU.

(... Says the guy running his main rig on a 2006 Corsair HX PSU... but at least I bought it new, and it had a relatively easy life)

Anyways, instead you should get mobile Athlon XP, those have unlocked multipliers for easy overclocking/underclocking, and require less power to run since they are low voltage chips. Back in the day I ran a mobile XP2500 at 2.5ghz without any difficulty.

Alternatively, you can grab an early Barton or Thoroughbred-B processor, those are also usually unlocked. Not a XP3000+, but something like a XP2500 or lower, which doesn't require as much power. I have a Tbred-B XP1700 that has no problem hitting 2.2ghz on default voltage.

Basically there's no point in chasing the fastest official Athlon XP processors.