I just bought a new mainboard and i'm getting the CPU....but, in the mainboard manual it says""Socket A for AMD Duron/Anthlon/Anthlon XP 3000+ or higher"". does that mean I need to have a CPU with a core speed of 3000 or more, or is the 3000+ a part of the Anthlon XP *3000+*

thanks!

I would be VERY surprised if the CPU speed had to be 3000MHz or higher. I think it means that it supports the AMD Athlon 3000+ and, at the time that the manual was written, that was the fastest processor available but they've designed the motherboard to support higher speeds as well.

The thing that will tell you definitely is when you check the technical specs information and look at the Bus Speed and the Multiplier. Multiply the maximum rating for each of these together and that's the maximum processor speed that it can handle. By the same process, multiply the two lowest ratings and that's the minimum processor speed it can handle.

For example:

Bus Speed Support: 400MHz, 533MHz
Multiplier support: 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0

The minimum processor the example motherboard would support would be 2000MHz and the maximum would be 3700MHz.