AMD chipsets were always standing apart on the market. We have used to the fact that processors and chipsets are always produced by Intel, and AMD is something different... Besides, both the AMD-750 "Irongate" and the today´s AMD-760 as compared with competitors look pale - there are neither high-efficient buses between a north and a south bridges, nor various up-to-date features in the south bridge. Even AMD call it "ascetic". But let´s consider the problem from the standstill of AMD.

It is no secret that the company decided to start production of chipsets to back their CPUs. They say that if other companies can´t manage their task, motherboard manufacturers can always purchase chipsets for AMD´s processors at AMD´s stores. I think that all peculiarities of AMD chipsets are hidden in this approach. The company launched the first "slot" Athlon, and right after it - the AMD-750. Yes, it lacks for AGP 4X, UltraATA/100, hardware monitoring, PC133 SDRAM support. But! - 1) there is a chipset for the processor; 2) it provides a stable work at the minimal downgrade in performance. The VIA Apollo KX133, released right after it, supported the SDRAM at 133 MHz, but it helped it little - in some cases the AMD-750 based boards turned to be even faster! Besides, not all boards on the KX133 were compatible with the Slot A Thunderbird, and there were some "socket" models on the AMD-750 (Gigabyte GA-7IXE4).