Spec of my current setup

Amd64 3200+ venice rev DH-E6 - 2 Ghz (10-multiplier x 200 bus speed) single core.
ASrock 939Dual-SATA2
2 x 1 GB Corsair TwinX DDR 400 - 2 gb
GeCube Ati Radeon 9550 Extreme edition 128mb AGP8x
Coolermaster Centurion 5 w/ Coolermaster 350 Watts PSU
120GB Seagate 7200 PATA
80 GB Seagate 7200 SATA
300 GB Seagate 7200 SATA
NEC 2510A 8x Dvd-/+ r/rw/dvd9

===========================

All things equal with my old Intel cpu/mobo set-up, then and now. Not the latest drivers, but only four months old or less.

I really think its the MOBO/chipset, that's abit pokey. I would stay away from the N-force chipsets bec. it never seem to run out of problems plaquing it.