So what is the best cpu I can buy for an Asus A7V333 mobo?

[Fox5]

In the manual, it says the maximum speed it can support is 2 ghz. Now, it appears the fastest AMD cpu(that isn't a 64) is the 3200+ at 2.2 ghz, and the one closest to 2 ghz is the 2600+. I currently have a 2000+, btw, which is 1.7 ghz. If I plugged in a 3200, what would happen? Would it fry, lower the clockspeed to 2 ghz, or just work fine? How about the 2600+? I wanna know what the best performance value I can get is, since it just annoys me that in new games like Halo and Deus Ex: IW(the demo at least) that my framerate is usually capped at around 26 fps no matter what graphical or audio settings I have.

Or maybe I'd get better performance by upgrading something else.
I have 1280 MB of DDR ram, but it's all different speeds, and I don't know how to find out which is which so I'd probably have to replace all the ram if I wanted to upgrade that.
I doubt upgrading my video card would help much, I currently have a radeon 9700 pro, but since changing graphical settings doesn't effect framerate 95% of the time then I doubt it's a bottleneck.

 

[Fox5]

Well, n/m, I just did some research myself and found out the max it can support is the 2600+ with 266 FSB.(later revisions of my mobo can support up to 3000+) Well, I ordered that for $130, not sure what kind of performance I'll get though. I could have gotten a 2800+ with a new Asus mobo for $180, but I don't want to have to dismantle my case and basically rebuild a computer, and I figure after this my next major upgrade will just be an entirely new computer. I hope I get at least a 5-10 fps increase with this new cpu though.

 

[arjan de lumens]

The 3200+ requires a motherboard with 400MHz FSB support. If you try to use it in a board without 400FSB support, it will most likely run at the maximum FSB the board officially supports with a proportional reduction of clock speed - for a 266MHz FSB board, it will probably run at only 2200/400*266 MHz = 1466 MHz.

 

[Fox5]

Wow, in that case, I think I'll stick with the 2600+.

BTW, my A: drive doesn't work(never noticed since I never use it), I've tried using other A: drives(not sure if any of them were actually good, but I doubt they were all bad) and other cables and such, but it seems to be that my motherboard just isn't reading the A: drive.

Anyhow, is there anyway to update my bios without an A: drive?

 

[Fox5]

Ok, well it turns out Asus has a nifty bios flasher utility for windows, so that worked.

However, for my current cpu, it gives me the option of upping it to 2 ghz, however, I am unable to do so because my memory is ddr 133 instead of 166. Will the 2600+ require ddr 166?(I hope not, because with some cooling I might be able to get my current chip up to 2 ghz, plus I have over a gig of ram, it would cost me at least another $200 to replace that with ddr 166)