i have an athlon XP 1600+ (cpuz says Athlon MP ?) system which i am upgrading, i just got a new graphics card, but i have been told that it will be bottlenecked by the processor

so i went on ebay and found a XP-M 2500+ and a XP 3000+ both socket A, and in an acceptable price range, i have read that the XP-M procs overclock like demons and it is cheaper than the 3000 so it seems like th preferable choice

my concerns are that my motherboard wont support them, or that my ram might limit my overclocking

my motherboard is a gigabyte 7VTXH and has a via KT266/333 chipset (according to cpuz)

it has 3 sticks of ddr 2100 ram, one by micron technology, one by hyundai, and another which says it is by 00000000000

any suggestions?

If you're gonna overclock, then get the MP 2500+. If you're not going to overclock, then get the 3000+.

If CPUz says that your current processor is an MP, then you might want to try your hand at overclocking; you might get some nice results.

cool, thanks.

also, my motherbord is odd about overclocking, i change settings, but after i reboot the fsb is set to "by hw"

your mother board can support both cpu's but i would go with the athlon 3000+ you can always OC that too.
here is your motherboard Cpu support list