Sure it does, XP will use as many cores as you have, provided the particular software/app you are using sees them too.

I would stay away from Pentium D's, they were something of a failure for Intel. Intel only started to compete with AMD again after they released the Core2Duos.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I have Windows XP. Good thing I asked, now I will avoid the Pentiun D chips. What I like about this new Gigabyte MB is that it supports a wide variety of CPUs. Now I gotta look on Ebay for a Dual Core chip. If I get a Dual Core rated at, say, 1.8, will it still be faster and better than my P4 3.2?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i5-760-core-i7-970,2698.html Here you go.. even though it says "gaming cpu" it still applies. It's 2 months old but you can research your CPU from there when you select a price you are willing to spend.

You might look at some other non gaming CPUs too like the AMD 6 cores.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I had to look it up, after reading the page. Gulftown is Westmere EP. I've done some work with a 2x Westmere before, pretty cool chip. We had hyperthreading turned off though.

I have a Nehalem, and it's pretty cool. But even it costs a lot more for the CPU alone than frosty wants to spend on a system. And I don't blame him. Not everyone is as much of a computer hog as I.