Mainboard suggestions?

[John Wilson]

Hello all.

I am currently in the process of spec'ing a new machine for myself and wish
to go the AMD64 way.  Unfortunately, trying to find good information on
the myriad of mainboards that are available is giving me a serious
headache. :)

Please keep in mind, that up to this point, I've not strayed from the Intel
world, and always used Intel mainboards.

>From what I've been able to gather, the two best mainboards for the AMD64
platform come from either Asus or MSI.  My original goal was to find a board
with the minimum of additional features onboard, save for sound and a NIC.
Firewire is useless to me.

For what it's worth, I'm planning on getting a retail package AMD64 3000, which
includes the AMD brand heatsink and fan.

I've attempted browsing the AMD64 mailling list here for good info, but have
come away scratching my head even more.  Basically, my questions are as
follows:

- Which is the better chipset for FreeBSD, the Via offering or the NVidia one?

- It seems that a lot of the MSI boards use Realtek audio and NIC's.  Are these
any good?  Are they at all supported?  My understanding was that Realtek was
on the crappy side, but I've no personal experience with them.

- It appears that Asus has problems with their onboard NIC as well; there were
a few messages posted to the list in regard to this.  Is this still a problem?
Should I avoid Asus because of this?

- If anyone could make a suggestion as to the best mainboard, in regard to
FreeBSD compatibility, I'd be most appreciative.

Thank you all very much for your time,
John Wilson.