Suggestions for motherboard

This is a good board and I've never had any problems with Asus's hardware.  You do realize that even though this board is 533mhz FSB capable, your current CPU won't be able to utilize this, don't you?  It will still work with this board (as long as the CPU is socket 478), it wll just run at 400mhz speeds.  If I'm not mistaken, the lowest P4 CPU that supports a 533mhz FSB is the 2.26.  Another board that you may want to consider is the Abit SR7-8X.  It has all of the features you listed for the Asus board, plus it is AGP 8X compatible and will support the new, faster DDR memory (400DDR).  And it's cheaper ($80-90).  I'm currently using this board and love it.  I even put one in the new system that I built for my brother.  Abit also has a reputation for having some of the best customer service in the market. If I had to pick a weakness for this board, it would be that it's not a great overclocker, but most people aren't worried about that.  Hope this helps you out.  

I have an Asus P4Pe gold edition and I love it! It works perfectly! Got Everything that you want, plus some (IEEE 1394(firewire), Gigabit Lan, and serial ata raid)!

I have been doing some extensive research on many components, so as to build a new computer. Much of this was done on a very helpful site www.tomshardware.com and decided on the Asus P4PE which has the 533FSB available if you get a new Pentium4 CPU with at least 2.4GHz. This board comes in many flavors. The one I decided on was the P4PE/R/L/F/SATA. That means it has "R" Raid Controller built in. "L" which means standard 10/100 LAN. If you want the Gigabyte LAN then the nomenclature would be "GBL". I see no need for the Gig yet as I believe the use of that over the internet is years off. If you are a gamemer and go to LAN parties where EVERYONE ELSE has it, then you would want it also. The Gig LAN will cost you an extra $10 or less. So this board is nice because you don't have to put out bucks for a network card. Every board I've seen offered also has the audio included but there doesn't seem to have a letter in the catalog number for it. The "F" is for the firewire connection though some websites use the numbers "1394" instead of the "F". You would want this if you have or plan on getting a digital camera. Lastly the "SATA" is for serial ATA which in theroy should make your NEW serial hard drive by Seagate or Maxtor (the only ones so far)go faster. But just as there wasn't a big improvement on hard drives running at ATA133 over ATA100, the serial ATA which runs at 150 didn't do any better in the overall tests to warrent the extra $50 to $75 more. I still think it is worth the money to get the SATA as I believe the hard drives in the next couple of years will be using this and they will get much faster. This is just a guess but I think probably a good one. We could check with Al Gore, he probably knows since he invented the internet. Hope this helps.

After I posted, I realized the "warrant the extra $50 to $75" may be interpreted as that much more for the motherboard. I ment that much more for the new serial ATA hard drive over an ATA100 or ATA133. The price for having the serial ATA on the motherboard wasn't that much, and had to be there if you wanted some of the other options.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but i still need some clarification on the processor socket (p4 skt 478). What i want to know is wether there is a difference b/w a socket 478 processor and a regular P4 or is it that all P4's are 478.

About the FSB i really had no idea about the 1.6 GHz cpu not being able to utilize the true capability of a 533MHz, as well as info on SATA.

Socket 478 refers to the number of pins on the underside CPU/chip assembly.  All of the newer (someone correct me if I'm wrong) P4 chips over 2.0 are socket 478.  This has become the Pentium standard.  The P4 1.6 (like yours) came in either socket 423 or socket 478.  As you've probably guessed, a socket 423 chip has fewer pins and can't be used in a socket 478 motherboard.  I don't think this will be a problem for you as I'm almost positive that your current board is socket 478.  All of the boards mentioned above are good boards and would serve you well.  It's a matter of what features you want and how much you want to spend.  If you are a big gamer and are worried about performance, you may want to also read some performance reviews on the boards you are considering.  If not, then worry about features and cost.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it earlier, but the Abit SR7-8x also has onboard LAN if it matters to you.  Hope this helps.

I could not find your mother board listed but thought this site might help. http://support.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/
Your old motherboard has a 845 chipset, but not sure of what version. Anything "manufactured" starting in 2002 should be 478 socket. The plain 845 could be 423 or 478. The 845D, 845E, 845G, 845GE, 845PE are all 478. I don't know if there was an A, B, and C version of this chip. If you don't have a motherboard manual then I suggest getting a magnifying glass and counting pins or socket holes on the old board or processor. Good luck

If you have a socket 423 processor then
1) you can get yourself a powerleap adapter
2) if you do get one then you still won't be able to use the 533FSB option on the motherboard.