Ever since the Athlon first launched there's been very little change in the hardware for motherboards designed to support them. Unlike the K6 and its various hybrids, K7 had the disadvantage of being brought up around a very strict architecture. This meant that with the exception a few companies (Asus, Gigabyte etc.), almost all the other motherboards were exactly the same. Thus the casual Athlon user was left with a rather limited choice.

While Intel steamed ahead with it's 133Mhz FSB, RIMM and AGPx4 support, Athlon users were left in the dark with 100Mhz FSB (Dual 200Mhz Direct to CPU), DIMM (100Mhz) and AGPx2. The troubles suddenly escalated when owners of GeForce Graphics cards found that a problem with the voltage on the AGP slot meant they were forced into AGPx1 mode or no AGP at all to maintain stability.

Now after literally months of waiting, VIA launched it's 'Apollo KX-133' chipset to the public, which was quickly snapped up by motherboard manufacturers the world over. Speedy3D was able to get our hands on one of these swanky new boards from Soltek, so just how does it fare?

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