I'm soon to build a gaming PC for around $500, but I want room to upgrade. That being said I can get:

E7200 for $129

or

X2 5000+ for $81

The $48 difference can go towards my video card, or is it better to spend it here?

Is the 775 going to be around for a while so I can upgrade the Intel chip in a couple of years?

I'm not to big on overclocking, so what is your opinion with or without an overclock?

Here is my thinking, the AM2+ (as I've heard that the AM2 socket will be around for a long time) motherboard will support a Phenom down the road when the prices are lower. I've also heard that quad cores are overkill right now. I also want to get a crossfire motherboard so eventually I will have two 4850's.

Wolfdale for Economical Enthusiasts: Core 2 Duo E7200 Review (page 6)

Has the 6000+, which is faster then the 5000+ at stock. Also keep in mind they used "OCZ GeForce 8800GTX" in their test bed. Not sure about cross fire with HD 4850's.

Honestly I do not think either socket form will be around much longer Intel will be moving to an IMC eventually (who knows when that will be) and AMD will want to be moving to DDR3 eventually.

You'll have trouble to buld a gamin PC around $500, but in any case I suggest E7200.
People say Nehalem (Intel's next generation) will not be 775, so forget about motherboard support.
However, this is not something you should worry about. If you buy a solid 775 mobo, in a year from now you can upgrade your CPU to a more-powerful-still-775 one.

Thanks! That is exactly the comparison I was looking for. I've always built systems with AMD, but it looks like this new one will be Intel.

Socket 775 is going to be replaced by Socket 1366 and the new Nehalem processors this winter, but you will be able to get CPU's for a while.

The 5000+ is a couple years old already, I wouldn't recommend going with it, and the AM2+ motherboards are somewhat weird with their processor compatibility. You would have better luck with 775 in the future.

The AM2 socket will be staying for quite some time. AMD's new processors that support DDR3 will not require the AM3 socket; they will run just fine in an AM2 board, and will use the DDR2 memory. It is also possible to run an AM2 or AM2+ processor in an AM3 board.
2 cents.

AMD's track record with socket compatability has not been stellar lately, what with most motherboard manufacturers unable and/or unwilling to update their BIOS to allow Phenoms to operate on AM2 boards. My guess is we'll see a repeat with AM3, only worse. Though for some reason I thought AM3 was supposed to be an entirely new socket...

The socket incompatability isn't AMD's fault. That's the MB manufacturers fault. And I will have to say that on the AMD side, I think MB manufacturers are really cutting the performance of AMD processors.

Clarify this, it's not a socket issue, but a power design issue with MB makers.

Get the e7200. The e7200 is made for economy OC game rigs.

I've had mine for about 6 weeks. It has been stable at 3.8G. 3dMark06, I am scoring 11700 with one 3870, 16800 with 2 crossfired. COD4 gets 100FPs @ 1600x1000, 4xAA, 8xAF, high settings.

Temps never exceed 53c at load.

But you both seem to forget that it is AMD who is making the backwards compatability claims. If the MB manufactures are unwilling to or do not help support that then AMD needs to not make such claims. Its as if none of the mobo makers did update their AM2 mobos for Phenom support. Everyone would blame the mobo makers while AMD would get off scott clean although it was AMD who made the claim and didn't follow through by pushing the mobo makers.

But thats just my view.

I second the E7200 since even the 775 socket will be replaced it has good cpus like 45 nm quads . My plan is exactly that upgrade to quads later on 775 since nehalem might cost an arm and a leg

The e7200 is a fine microprocessor but I'm not so sure about that comparison.

The AMD X2 6000+ rig was running DDR2 @ 750MHz versus DDR3 @ 1333MHz for the e7200.

An AM2+ mobo with PCIe 2.0 and a clock to DDR2 800MHz spec might level that playing field (and be a little cheaper than the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe AM2).

Can't really go wrong either way ...