motherboard decision help

Gang: I'm about to buy a bunch of parts to build a new machine, and am looking for suggestions/referrals on the motherboard to use. I'm interested in an Athlon XP 2600+ (because that seems to be the sweet spot, pricewise) and there are a ton of motherboards that can support that processor. One MB that has caught my eye is the Gigabyte GA-7VT600-L, a Via KT600 chipset board. It also has integrated audio and LAN, using Realtec ALC-655 audio chipset and Realtec 8101L 10/100 LAN chipset. I'd appreciate it if any of you know of how well this board and these chipsets are supported in a modern Linux if you'd let me know. This Gigabyte board can be purchased today for US$63 from newegg (not a plug, just a fact). Alternatively, I'd also appreciate suggestions for similarly priced boards that are known to work well (I'd like to not go much over about $80). (I'm leaning away from an Nvidia chipset board merely because I don't want to depend on nvidia for closed-source drivers for the board, though I could perhaps be convinced otherwise!) One small caveat is I need two serial ports, and some new boards come with only one (I'm using both a serial modem and serial UPS). I'm not certain which LInux I'm ultimately going to end up using either, but probably one of Fedora FC1/FC2, or maybe one of the RHEL 3 derivatives, Whitebox or Tao. Feedback will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance! -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex(a)fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ------------------------------- Romans 5:8 (niv) ------------------------------