i am thinking of buying the AMD XP 3200+, but the lower price of the 3000+ makes me wonder if its worth it. The 3200 is a little over $100 more than the 3000, what do you guys think?

i'd go for a 2600+ or 2800+ barton core and overclock it, a 2600+ at 400fsb will be faster than a 3200+

The only significant difference between any of the current Athlons is the cache. they are all easy to O/C so get the cheapest one you can find and run it O/C. My "old" XP-2600 is running faster than a XP-3200, but desn't have the larger cache as the Bartons.

if you are not planning to overclock mate, and you dont mind spending that extra few dollars.....

definetly get the xp3200, they run at 400fsb stock from the box, while the xp3000 run 333 fsb, so there is a lot more bandwith available for the xp3200, and should be future proof for you!

but make sure you get ram that is rated to run at least 400mhz (pc3200) to get the maximum power from it.....

if you decide to o/c later, you will be able to push a little bit more juice from it....

i

you can get 400fsb xp3000+ athlons too, they run at 2.1Ghz 10.5*200

Then you would have to unlock the mulitplier and that can be sticky buisness that voids the warranty.

If you have the money then sure, go with the 3200+. The higher FSB is a nice advantage. Will you notice any real world differences between a 3000+ and 3200+? Probably not much at all.

Myself? I would go with a 2700+ and save myself a couple hundred bucks.

It doesn't have the extra cache or 400FSB but it runs at the same speed as the 3000+ for a hundred bucks less (CDN).
I would rather spend the extra money on a better gfx card or more RAM or more HD space etc etc. But that's just me.

Go here for a good comparison between the different CPU's. I don't know about you but an extra 100-200 points on 3D mark or a few more seconds video decoding isn't worth a couple hundred bucks to me.

If you are going to spend that much money try and get a Athlon 64 because the XP is on it's last legs.

(one last note, if you are interested in overclocking;
The XP 2100+ T-B core is a great bargin.
It always overclocks to a 2700+ simply by bumping the FSB up from 133 to 166. Of course your motherboard will have to support FSB overclocking but most do, this is what I have in my PC at home. I didn't need any extra cooling or anything. Two of my friends have the same thing and have had zero problems with it )

there's 3 different types of xp3000+

athlon XP3000+ 333 fsb @ 2.17Ghz
athlon XP3000+ 400 fsb @ 2.10Ghz
athlon64 XP3000+ @ 2.0Ghz

and you can't unlock the multiplier on athlon XP processors any more, they're all locked and overclocking can only be done by fsb

Yes there are ways of unlocking the XP models. You can connect pins on the bottom of the motherboard for example.
I've also heard of some sort of adapter that unlocks it, with that you wouldn't have to void the warranty.
The 64's I'm not sure if they've found a way or not yet because I don't have one and therfore have had no need to research it.
Still though if you can FSB overclocking is much easier and safer. I've never hurt anything buy a simple FSB overclock.

Ooops missed the 200FSB XP 3000+.
For sure if you are picking between those two 200FSB chips save the money by getting the 3000+ and buy more RAM or gfx or HD space or whatever with the extra cash

Here's some CPU specs I made up, make your own choice I suppose...

Athlon

My poor old XP2600 is running at 410MHz FSB, no mods required.

my xp2500's running at 412fsb with no mods )

there's no way to unlock the new athlon xp's they're all locked from week 39 and the pins and bridges for the multiplier aren't even connected to the cpu core which is why i origionally reccomended the 2500+ or 2600+ if he was going to overclock

You of course mean 205 FSB and 206 FSB. Lets not confuse people

Apparently I'm a little behind the times on the unlocking thing.
By all means go with the 2500 or 2600 if you just have to up the FSB to 200 then that's great
I was just speaking from experience with my 2100 @ 27000.

it was amd that started it with the 266 fsb athlons lol i only do it cause everyone else does

I don't like refering to the CPU rated FSB but the actual FSB.
But that's me. Gives a better comparison between AMD and Intel without all the 400FSB/800FSB hype