Hi, guys!

As soon as I want to step into 64bit wagon I would like to have your advice: what's the best CPU to bu? Nowadays these two CPUs cost almost the same in my place and I wonder what CPU is the best solution in a long term.

E.g., I know that Sempron 3400 supports SSE3 technology, while Athlon 3200 socket 754 doesn't. Also I would like to run a newer VMWare 5.5 and it requires an AMD core revision D or later. Will I be able to run 64bit guest OS in VMWare on any of the mentioned CPUs?

Also numerous reviews show that Sempron 3400 is easily overclockable (if I have a good RAM) and I have no idea about Athlon 3200. Also I wonder which CPU dissipates less warmth and has fewer power needs.

Any ideas?

All the Athlons 64 for Socket 754 are either Revision C0 or Revision CG. I have not the less idea why an application may demand a Revision D0 K8 (Opteron, Sempron, or Athlon 64), because they don't support any new Instruction Set that the olders K8s doesn't (Revision E Processors incorporates SSE3, but from the first K8 to Revision E, nothing else. On the other way, very few Software can take advantage of SSE3, so for now, it is not critical neither). Bewthem the two Processors that you mentioned, the Athlon 64 3200+ (Either with Newcastle or Clawhammer Core) will be faster than the Sempron 3400+, but as it is a Revision E Processor, it will have many advantages over the Athlon 64 3200+ that are worth considering. Though it got less Cache L2 and if the Athlon 64 3200+ uses a Newcastle Core, less Frecuency too, it supports SSE3 and also x86-64, it is a 90nm Processor with much lower power consumption, let alone overclockeability, and better than all that, it should be cheaper, I would probabily go with it. However, you may want to consider a Turion 64 (It doesn't got Heatspreader so you will need a special Heatsink that correctly fits) because all them are Revision E and fits in Socket 754, and can come with 1 MB Cache L2. Or you may want to consider a Socket 939 Athlon 64 3000+ Revision E, too.

If you can afford it then get the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 939. If not, then on Socket 754, you should only consider getting one of the Sempron 64s which your are, the 3400+ is a revision E processor and good one and yes it can overclock like mad!

Well there must be something. I just checked my Socket 754 Athlon 64 for compatibility with VMware 5.5 64-bit guests and I found out, that it would not do....

Obviously there is something missing in socket 754 processors, that VMware requires for stable 64-bit guest support.

I feel like in the old days, when I bought a 386 only to find when I tried to install Interactive Systems Unix for 32-bit Processors, that mine had a bug and would only run 16-bit software. That was one of the reasons why switched to AMD later...

Still, just try to get the Athlon 64 3000+. It is only $12 more than the Sempron 3400+ and it should outperform the Semp. also.

Thank you all for your comprehensive answers!

BTW, these two CPUs (Sempron 3400 and Athlon 3200+ Socket 754) have almost the same performance (as seen on many web sites). Unfortunately I don't have enough money to upgrade my PC to socket 939 platform as it would require new 1) powersupply ($50 as a minimum) 2) motherboard (around $100) 3) CPU ($140) ;-) 4) PCI-E GPU ($100). So a total sum of upgrade is unaffordable for me right now. Also I've heard that AMD is about to drop socket 939 in favour to M2 socket in the second quoter 2006, so I wouldn't like to upgrade to socket 939 ;-)