The KT266 had some problems from the start with boards from several manufacturers, and it seems to have gone away. AMD was hoping that the KT266 would take off, so that they didn't have to pump out the 760. Unfortunately, the KT266 didn't go too far, and AMD had to put out the 760. Since AMD does not have nearly as many facilities as Intel, this is a bit harder for them to do than Intel. However, it seems to be a solid choice right now.
You also may want to consider two upcoming chipsets for AMD cpus. The SiS735 and nVidia's nForce 420/220 chipsets, both featuring DDR support. There is the ALi Magik1 DDR, but that has terrible performance--you wouldn't be any faster than you are now, it's that bad.
The i810 has integrated graphics and no board based on it will have an AGP slot. The 815 is fine, except for the 512MB Ram limit.
 
The SBLive! is not Via's fault as far as the sound goes. Blame creative on this one.
For Win2k, you needed to have the Via 4-in-1's and that patch, and the santa cruz cards have been the best competition to the SBLive!
This is a general for chipsets, not Via specific: PCI slot 1 and the AGP slot share an IRQ, and that causes problems sometimes.
I would check to make sure your cooling is good too, as that could be a problem. Don't think it is, but not sure.
 
Can you list your specs? and driver versions? It may not be necessary to jump ship just yet.

Thanks a lot for your info!
i just wanna make sure the via nightmare won't happen to my next computer again. one more question, although mobo like Abit KG7Raid uses AMD760 as northbridge, the southbridge is still VIA! should i completely stay out of VIA? what should i do?
 
my specs:
Abit KT7A 3C bios
1ghz non-oced athlon
hercules geforce2 gts 12.41
pci4: sblive! (drive date is 5/5/2000) any update?
pci5: linysis nic
pci6: netgear nic (yes i need2)

The southbridge chipset is prolly the Via686B.
 
I run the asus a7m-266 with a 761 north and a via 686B south, havent had a shake of problems with it at all, and my case is packed with peripherals. Most likley there will be a patch cd that is shipped with the mobo for the via drivers.

im just wondering...do u use win2k?

[H]ard Ocp did an article about the a7m266. Apparently they found no problems when transferring through the 686B ..they seem to see that the problem lies between the via nb and via sb ..not amd nb and via sb (with the exception of the mp chipset as laid out by AMD's whitepaper detailing the incompatiblities between the 762 and 686b). I would say that it seems ratehr safe now to get kt266...especially when the a7v266 ..received decent reviews. .

Yeah, I just read that [H]ard OCP review of the Asus A7V266 too.
Asus is a safe bet there. The only problem you'll run into is that Asus boards are sold with a price tag that includes having their name on it. Other than that, Asus is good.
I know that MSI had a crop of bad KT266 boards, so be wary, but MSI is also a good choice.
I'd read up on your boards before you make the final pick.
Although many Win2k users have experienced problems with SBLive! cards, not everyone has, so it's not completely hopeless--just mostly;)
Personally, if it won't kill you, wait until the SiS735 and nForce boards hit the market and check out the reviews. While I've never been excited about something from SiS before, the 735 seems to be in a very good position to kick arse.
 
I'm not totally seeing where anything is really bad at this point, other than your sound problem.
Make sure that all of the Creative stuff is uninstalled.

thanks for all the input guys...
just wondering if any of u have a amd761 or kt266? have u run into ANY problems in win2k?

no i haven't but i'll ask around other message boards for you and gather a common consensus

cool thanks valkarie =)

Just put together a new box using the EPoX 8K7A mobo. It's AMD 761/via686B. I run Win2000 (slipstreamed) sp2. Installed OS, didn't install any drivers (4-in-1, miniport, busmaster etc.) and everything's running great so far (knock wood). My system is T-bird 1.4, 512 Crucial DDR, 20 + 60 gig IBM GXP's, Geforce2, Turtle Beach. Very stable so far. This board is 'da bomb right now, check out the reviews here, here, here-this is a 3 way 760 test with the Asus, the EPoX and the Gigabyte, or here.
 
Have fun.

WIth my a7m-266 I have not run into ANY problems at all running my system.
 
AMD 1.2 GHz
256 DDR
2 - 30 Gig Maxtor 7200 rpm RAID
1 - 20 Gig fujitus
1 - LG 12x8x32
1 - Pioneer DVD
ATI Radeon 64 meg ddr
 
and running win2k (linux werks as long as you have new kernel) and tons of appz, adobe photoshop, reason, cakewalk sonar....with no problem.
 
Id recommend getting this asus board as the bios revision is final and its been rock solid for me.