If you're happy not to
OC your Athlon XP, it's hard to beat the ECS K7S5A. With un-official BIOS from OCWorkbench.com, one does get a few more FSB choices, but Core Voltage and Multiplier adjustment remain a "hack the
CPU or nothin'" proposition.
There are two slots for SDR
RAM, as well as two slots for DDR
RAM, so two of your 256 Mb SDR DIMM's won't go to waste.
The boost in performance that I got when I replaced half a Gig of PC-133 with the same amount of PC-2100 DDR was a whopping 4%. I
still don't understand all the details of the K7S5A's BIOS, so your mileage may vary.
Caveats about the K7S5A:
Personally, I find the AMI bios too damn weird to update. I guess you get spoiled with Award's BIOS's. This means that my own K7S5A will never host a Morgan-cored Duron or an Athlon XP. Boohoo, the ECS K7S
6A is looking like a fine upgrade. No Via chipset for me. That is a great relief!
This mainboard does not suffer cheap-Charlie chump PS's gladly. From what I understand, a high quality PS is a must. I've used a PC Power&Cooling Turbo-Cool 300 and a Sparkle 350W with no probs.
And.... heck, wait for the ECS K7S6A. If it's $75, buy it instead. Dang, the ECS K7S6A is DDR only. SBT.