Maraakate wrote:

If you're concerned about the corrosion you could just buy some die-electric grease and spread that in the ddr socket. The grease does not conduct so it will not hurt anything. It's normally meant for pig tail connectors on automobiles where corrosion can not seep in and if it's applied it does an amazing job. Also, when extreme overclocking was kind of cool a few years ago a lot of people used the dielectric grease or in a pinch you could use vaseline.

Personally, I applied this stuff to sockets on computer I keep in long term storage and never had any problems.

If you need to clean the socket you could use electrical contact cleaner. Make sure everything is powered off and PSU disconnected and spritz it in thereand insert/remove the module a few times. Make sure it's evaporated before you power it up again. Shouldn't hurt anything, but it warns you specifically about it on the label. I've personally never ran into an issue.

That's great info. Would like to add, you should always use LINT-FREE cloths for cleaning. I know most people don't mind qtips or baby cotton, but lint is bad and some of that stuff creates static and accumulates build up. Lint-free should be used primarily all the time. For heavy build up on expansion cards, erasers work great for removing build-up and stubborn grime, along with 1 part water 1 part alcohol to finish cleaning. Pure alcohol works but it can be too dry IMO.

No one speaks about the Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA?

I am using that board when finally found it on ebay at 2020.

It's an am2 socket board with ddr2 support.

So i put a great Phenom II 955, overclocked to 4ghz, 4gb of ddr2-1066 RAM (motherboard support the 1066 multiplier of RAM) and after that I installed Windows Xp.

A great AGP system to pull out power from the mighty Radeon HD 3850 AGP, what do you think?

Nforce 3 has too many quirks with drivers, so it's a hard pass.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-05, 15:20:

Nforce 3 has too many quirks with drivers, so it's a hard pass.

So for me with that system I can say I am lucky.

No problem with Windows Xp Sp3 Professional.

Lucky I had installed some various chipset mix drivers.

I don't remember which one but they advised me that time, two years ago.

This thread has been necrobumped a few times over the years, but just to add... latest AGP board may be good or bad depending on what you want. If you're trying to play DOS games as well you may be disappointed in anything with a VIA 4in1 chipset. Performance is terrible with this on DOS. I'm not well versed in drivers that are for AMD (i.e. nForce) so I don't know if you're targetting win9x, Win2k or WinXP. This all may come into play as well depending on what you're trying to achieve.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-05, 15:20:

Nforce 3 has too many quirks with drivers, so it's a hard pass.

Depends on OS. I used it with Linux for years, which works fine. Also works great with XP. Only newer Windows hits problems - but that's not really an issue with retro stuff.

dionb wrote on 2022-04-05, 22:37:

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-05, 15:20:

Nforce 3 has too many quirks with drivers, so it's a hard pass.

Depends on OS. I used it with Linux for years, which works fine. Also works great with XP. Only newer Windows hits problems - but that's not really an issue with retro stuff.

This is what I seem to proof.

My system works perfectly with Windows XP Pro Sp3, the overclocked Phenom 2 955, the HD3850 512MB AGP and the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Zs.

But that's not the "best" AGP chipset due to that.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-06, 07:03:

But that's not the "best" AGP chipset due to that.

Oh yes, if we consider performances on new operative system, ok yes.

But I think this motherboard can achieve best performance on Windows XP.

I'd break the AGP era into two-- There's the "early" AGP 3.3V period when it wasn't much faster than PCI and Win98 was still in full force and then later there was the 4x/8x low voltage "golden age" period when AGP + XP ruled of the world.

If I'm messing around with 3.3v AGP cards, I use an old intel built 440BX motherboard that's in a Gateway E-4200. Doesn't have the world's best performance, but it is as stable & compatible as they come, doesn't freak out the really old AGP cards, and it won't burn up a Voodoo 5500.

For the AGP 4x or 8x cards, I still love my M7NCG 400 & AN35N Nforce2 motherboards.
* Solid support for AGP 4x and 8x cards
* Supports IDE UDMA modes via BIOS Int13h which was great when I needed to copy lots of MBs from a DOS boot disk
* Onboard S/PDIF output which was an audio game changer back in the Pre HDMI world
* Supports low voltage Barton/Thorton Athlons
* USB 2.0 (FTW!)
So that's why it was best for me back in the day. Caveat: I only ran Win98 & WinXP. DOS was just for maintenance & pre-install prep in 2004. I didn't do Vista or Linux. I wasn't playing Commander Keen or Command & Conquer on this system. The BIOStar mobo has been re-capped after spending 12 years in my dad's study. Its still good for me today because it is fast enough to sort of feel modern and it the easiest for testing storage performance in DOS because it doesn't require UDMA drivers to stretch its legs. That and they didn't die. ( Talking to you, Nforce 6150!)

I don't have any Nforce3 motherboards . I sort of skipped them and jumped straight to PCI-Express. They were not compelling at the time.

Never liked Pentium 4 systems. They were more compatible than the Via chipsets, sure, but those big fat heatsinks rubbed me the wrong way.

Maraakate wrote on 2022-04-05, 16:22:

This thread has been necrobumped a few times over the years

The only necro bump I see is the jump from 2014 to this week 😀

Oh, btw Nforce 3 has freezing problems with GeForce 6800 cards.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-06, 16:39:

Oh, btw Nforce 3 has freezing problems with GeForce 6800 cards.

Not mine... My Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 (the only nForce 3 Ultra board that I have) works fine with a Gigabyte GeForce 6800 (the passively cooled version) in both WinXP and Win98.
Well, in Win98 it's just OKish, because of the well known compatibility issues that the 6xxx series has with many games.

Intel Side:

1. ASRock ConRoe865PE: ONLY AGP+Core 2 motherboard with 4 GB memory support in Intel side. (Not 3 GB like 775Dual-VSTA and 4CoreDual mobos.)+AGP+Quad Core CPU Support.
2. ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2: ONLY motherboard with AGP+Quad Core CPU Support+SATA 2 Support+Hybrid DDR400-DDR2 Support (Limited with 2 GB with DDR400 and 3 GB with DDR2)+PCI-E Support (Not pure x16, max. x4 mode.) in intel side.

AMD Side:

1.ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA: I think this is the BEST AGP Motherboard. This is ONLY AGP motherboard with supporting more than 4 GB Memory. 16 GB DDR2 1066 MHz Memory Support+Phenom II X4 Quad Core CPU Support, probably it may support Phenom II X6 Hexa-Core CPU's with modded BIOS. Brilliant motherboard, I'm searching like years that. 😜
2.ASrock 939Dual-SATA2: I think, this one is the most versatile AGP Motherboard. ONLY AGP motherboard with pure x16 PCI-Express slot (Not x4 mode like ASRock 775DUAL-VSTA or ASUS P5VD1-X) . Also ONLY AGP motherboard with 3 SATA connectors (x2 SATA 1 and x1 SATA 2 connectors) . With Future CPU Slot, it can also support AM2 CPU's like AM2NF3-VSTA, Phenom II X4 CPU's and 8 GB DDR2 800 Memory.

Somehow you are forgetting Gigabyte GA-MF3, AM2 nForce3 based motherboard, thpugh it seems it has lower CPU support comparing it to AsRock nf3 model.. I have 1 in the storage, but never got there to trying it out, how well does it perform...

ASRock ConRoe865PE: ONLY AGP+Core 2 motherboard with 4 GB memory support in Intel side

865PE chipset has no PAE remapping option, so it's also limited to 3.x Gb, depending on your system config (more devices = less memory).

ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA: I think this is the BEST AGP Motherboard. This is ONLY AGP motherboard with supporting more than 4 GB Memory.

Nforce 3 =/= BEST. You're pretty much stuck with Nvidia cards only in 64-bit Windows environment. All while having freezes with GeForce 6xxx/7xxx cards, if you're unlucky.

Latest is an easy question, but best can't be discussed independently from purpose. For example the latest boards probably don't have universal AGP, so they physically can't take older AGP cards. So if the best AGP board is one that can at least theoretically run any and all consumer grade AGP graphics cards, it'll likely be an older late P3-early P4 era board. And then there is AGP Pro for industrial grade cards. And then the all-in-one Universal AGP Pro, like the ASUS CUV4X-D.

And what about other things that can be desireable for specific purposes?
For example let's say the DFI AK74-EC. It has universal AGP and an ISA slot.

Best board is one you own and works 😁

RandomStrangers comment has great options for AGP Pro and fast ISA slot boards. Abit KT7 / KT7A is fast ISA slot board and has lots of documentation / discussion on vogons too.

I use Asrock Dual-VSTA with e5800, 2gb ddr2 and ti 4400 for win98 / XP since I don't need ISA slot / universal AGP.

This thread is about latest/fastest setups. Fastest you can get with ISA is industrial LGA775 865G motherboard with Core 2 Duo support. There's simply no "best" solution with 3.3v compatible AGP and ISA slots, because it's pretty much all VIA-based boards for S370/S462 with SDRAM.
And universal AGP Pro is so specifically gimmicky, that most likely none of professional cards require it. So it's pointless.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-04-16, 18:36:

865PE chipset has no PAE remapping option, so it's also limited to 3.x Gb, depending on your system config (more devices = less […]
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ASRock ConRoe865PE: ONLY AGP+Core 2 motherboard with 4 GB memory support in Intel side

865PE chipset has no PAE remapping option, so it's also limited to 3.x Gb, depending on your system config (more devices = less memory).

ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA: I think this is the BEST AGP Motherboard. This is ONLY AGP motherboard with supporting more than 4 GB Memory.

Nforce 3 =/= BEST. You're pretty much stuck with Nvidia cards only in 64-bit Windows environment. All while having freezes with GeForce 6xxx/7xxx cards, if you're unlucky.

I mean it has four RAM slots. All DDR+AGP+Core 2 Motherboards have only two RAM slots up to 2 GB RAM and all DDR2 AGP+Core 2 motherboards have only 2 RAM slots only up to 3 gig ram, not more. OS may not recognizing fully 4 GB in ConRoe865PE, Windows 64-bit systems recognize maximally 3.43 GB in ConRoe865PE. Still, this is the maximum memory of AGP+Core 2 system. Therefore, my post is not completely invalid.

I missed also AliveDual-eSATA2. It combines 939Dual-SATA2 and AM2NF3-VSTA. The best choice is AliveDual-eSATA2.