Can you wait till March 29th ?
Seriously, especially if you want future proofing... 64-bit is still a ways off, and Athlon would be the current choice if you want that. Itanium 2 seems dedicated to 64-bit only, though it can run 32-bit.
Gigabyte makes a top rated mobo, they shoud list the recommended RAM at their site for their mobo... My personal pick is:
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe $179.00 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
CORSAIR (Winbond) CMX256A-3500C2 – 512MB DDR433 PC3500 (x2) $152.00 ZipZoomFly/Yahoo
CORSAIR (Winbond) CMX512-3500C2 – 512MB DDR433 PC3500 (x2) $282.00 Memory Labs/Yahoo
Kingston (Hynix) KVR400X64C3A/256 – 256MB DDR400 PC3200 (x2) $84.58 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Hynix) KVR400X64C3A/512 – 512MB DDR400 PC3200 (x2) $145.64 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Mosel) KVR400X72C3A/256 – 256MB DDR400 PC3200 ECC (x2) $98.64 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Mosel) KVR400X72C3A/512 – 512MB DDR400 PC3200 ECC (x2) $188.00 New Egg/Yahoo
ECC RAM is not really needed unless you want 2-4GB of RAM and/or mission critical stuff... If you want to overclock, Corsair (which also uses Winbond chips) is a super choice. I am waiting till at least March 29th, they will be adding so many features to the mobo - especially for HTPC's!
Gigabyte makes a top rated mobo, they shoud list the recommended RAM at their site for their mobo... My personal pick is:
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe $179.00 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
CORSAIR (Winbond) CMX256A-3500C2 – 512MB DDR433 PC3500 (x2) $152.00 ZipZoomFly/Yahoo
CORSAIR (Winbond) CMX512-3500C2 – 512MB DDR433 PC3500 (x2) $282.00 Memory Labs/Yahoo
Kingston (Hynix) KVR400X64C3A/256 – 256MB DDR400 PC3200 (x2) $84.58 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Hynix) KVR400X64C3A/512 – 512MB DDR400 PC3200 (x2) $145.64 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Mosel) KVR400X72C3A/256 – 256MB DDR400 PC3200 ECC (x2) $98.64 KnowledgeMicro/Yahoo
Kingston (Mosel) KVR400X72C3A/512 – 512MB DDR400 PC3200 ECC (x2) $188.00 New Egg/Yahoo
ECC RAM is not really needed unless you want 2-4GB of RAM and/or mission critical stuff... If you want to overclock, Corsair (which also uses Winbond chips) is a super choice. I am waiting till at least March 29th, they will be adding so many features to the mobo - especially for HTPC's!