Price: $115

When the Athlon "Thunderbird" was unleashed by AMD back in June, the hardware world buzzed with performance estimates. An on-die, full speed cache with copper interconnects sounded intimidating, and was seemingly just what AMD needed to upset Intel's Coppermine reign. Performance differences aside, a stable platform was still needed for the Thunderbird to realize its full potential, and at that point there were few motherboards to choose from. AMD opted for FIC's AZ-11 to showcase their new weapon during the press tours, but FIC wasn't the only manufacturer with a product ready for market.

MSI was already on the scene when the Thunderbird launched with their K7T Pro (MS-6330) motherboard. Sporting a clean layout and average feature set, Microstar's pioneer KT133 board was able to offer value and stability in a well-engineered product.

Since June, several other manufactures have released their KT133 products in a frenzied rush to deliver a potent blow to an already crowded market. We've seen motherboards that effectively unlock multipliers, boast ATA/100 support, IDE RAID, and even additional USB connectivity. Yet, with all of this new competition, are the boards that were on the market back in June still able to compete? Sure they are, and the clincher will be cost, which has dropped since the Thunderbird's inception.

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