I have the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard. It uses the VIA chipset which causes some people concern but I've been using AMD motherboards with VIA chipsets for years and have had no complaints. I bought it because I was upgrading from a Athlon 64 3200 and I didn't want to have to replace my AGP video card and my DDR-400 RAM. This motherboard is the only one I know of that supports both AGP & PCI-E video cards and DDR & DDR2 RAM. This allowed me to upgrade to Core 2 Duo now, saving the video card and RAM upgrades for later. -Kent

There's no comparison unless cost is the only factor in your decision. Core 2 Duo is faster, runs cooler and uses less power. Also Intel phasing out Pentium D in favor of the Core line of processors. So if you are going to buy Intel, Core 2 Duo is the right choice. That being said, if you are looking for a choice, the choice really should be between Core 2 Duo and Athlon X2. Core 2 Duo is still the winner in terms of performance but Athlon is more competative than Pentium D. For a nice comparison check out Anandtech's review of the Core 2 Duo. I also read that you were put off by the price of the motherboards for Core 2 Duo. Not all motherboards are that expensive. Check out the ASRock line of motherboards for Core 2 Duo. Most (all?) are under $100. If you really need an upgrade and are concerned about price I would by one of the low end Core 2 Duo's and an ASRock motherboard. I recently purchased one of each and it performs excellent. VS2005 runs faster and everything is more responsive due to the dual CPU cores. -Kent