so apparently my athlon XP processor is not SSE2 enabled and cannot run premiere pro 2.0!
I now have to buy another motherboard and processor. thinking about getting them from a local company at www.autdirect.co.uk as they do bundles.

I'm not sure whether to get a basic Athlon64 processor, the new dual core equivalent AthlonX2 or a pentium 4 dual core bundle.

any preference out there?

I feel your pain, Brother... I just went through the same process. I wanted to use PP2 and a Decklink HD card, which meant having to upgrade the board, processor, memory, and OS.

I needed the PCI Express to run the Decklink, so I got an Abit KN8 Ultra, along with an AMD 64 chip at 3200. Low end, but tons faster than what I was using. Then, I discover when my Decklink comes in, the MB I just bought only has the one express slot, which my new video card was using. So, I order the next board up, the KN8 Sli. Then, when it is all together, I discover the memory is incompatible, and only have enough to get 1 gig of the right type. Get that in, and discovered the inputs on the Decklink won't work with my HD100.

Other than that, my system is working, ingests HDV via firewire, and edits HDV natively in PP2... just a little slow ;)

sounds like you've had a bumpy ride! I had similar problems, i always planned to use a totally different pc for editing however that has a via chipset onboard firewire which is not compatible with sp2 so i thought fine, i'll put a texas instruments card in.. but alas, no free pci slots! Hence why I have gone back to plan A of using one pc for general use as well as editing.
So what about anyone else, dual core athlon or dual core p4???

Just make sure you have a decent Raid set up in the plans, and you'll do ok. Of course, Ram is one of those "more is better" things. I need to add another gig or two.

ive edited on almost exactly the same system before with 2gig instead of 1 and i hardly noticed the difference.....?

I'm using a HP with intel dual core. not a hiccup so far.

The Core 2 Duo (aka Conroe) was just released by Intel, so shouldn't be long until computers with those chips are actually available. By all accounts I've read, they knock the socks off both previous Intel and AMD workstation/desktop setups. If you're going to buy or build a new system, this would be the processor to have.

Intel is also rumored to have pushed up their quad-core chips from early 2007 to Q4 this year, so if I can stand it, I'm going to hold off until those are out.

The Core 2 Duo (aka Conroe) was just released by Intel, so shouldn't be long until computers with those chips are actually available. By all accounts I've read, they knock the socks off both previous Intel and AMD workstation/desktop setups. If you're going to buy or build a new system, this would be the processor to have.

Intel is also rumored to have pushed up their quad-core chips from early 2007 to Q4 this year, so if I can stand it, I'm going to hold off until those are out.

thanks for the info, Pete. Quad core sounds tempting! only problem is I have a lot of projects in the next two weeks that I need to work on.. I think I might buy a simple athlon 64 for now and upgrade when these higher spec chips are available.
Do you think the quad core will work on a standard 939 motherboard? Also have you seen any early indications of the price?

You're doing kind of what I did. My old computer just wasn't cutting it for HD work, so I built my first Athlon system to bridge the gap until the Core 2 Duos become available. But now with quad core not far away and my Athlon 64 X2 +4800 doing pretty well on the timeline, I'm going to try to wait. Lucky for you, Athlon processor prices just dropped by 47% on average to counter Intel!

AMD and Intel processors require different motherboards with different sockets, so you can't mix-n-match. The Core 2 Duo processors have about the same price structure as previous lines of chips. $200-500 for the low-to-middle end, and the flagship 6800 Core 2 Duo Extreme will go for almost $1k.