No wait, that’s not right, is it? 333x12 would be 3996. Is that how it works?
Aside to Anamorphic: Did you get the DIY film gear disc?
Hi Johnny! Yes, I got it. I thought I’d sent you an email thanking you for it, but I may very well have only thought I’d sent it. In any case, thanks! I looked through it, but haven’t had a chance to undertake any of it yet. Busy several months. I’ll let you know when I finally get around to doing one of the projects!
No worries. I know how busy you’ve been. Glad you got it!
You catch on quickly 
This is great news. It seems that everything is in order. Your motherboard does support Sempron CPUs, but sometimes you’ll need to download an upgraded BIOS version if want to use a new CPU with older motherboards. But if it works it works.
I’m not familiar with CPUID, hopefully Jurph will check back in to answer your questions.
So, did the sluggishness disappear?
Yeah, I botched that part, because AMD’s “double-pumped” bus always confuses me. :smack: The system clock runs at 166.66, and the FSB runs at double that (… I think). Your math is right – you should be running at 166.66x12 = 2GHz. Your RAM is definitely running at 333MHz.
That’s okay, because your multiplier is where it should be – lucky you, you don’t really need the CPUID tool.
Yes, you got it in one. The motherboard is telling the whole system that it sees an Athlon XP 2400+. Look at the “family” and “model” numbers in CPUID to see what the motherboard is reading; it’s possible that it’s getting the right numbers, but just doesn’t have the right name in its lookup table. Your serial number starts with “SDC” and not “SDA” (remember that discrepancy from earlier?) – which means you got a Model 10. You’ve essentially upgraded from a Thoroughbred to a Barton, which buys you a little speed and a lot of power efficiency. Your computer is seeing an Athlon XP because under the hood, a Sempron is an Athlon XP!
A BIOS update is a simple procedure that still scares the hell out of me. If CPUID reports a model number of 10, then you should probably leave well enough alone.
Best of luck!
I wanted to give it a full day of using it before I reported back. And, so far… I’m pretty impressed; it’s definitely the snappiest the computer has ever been. I’m sure it’s a combination of all the advice in this thread. I did most of it, running a few different spyware removal programs, the various utilities recommended here, and defragging the drive. Which, by the way, was very fragmented. Which surprised me, since, as I said, the computer has never gotten really heavy use, and I don’t believe the drive has ever been more than about half full. But, however it happened, it’s good now, and the computer is working well.
Thanks again, everyone, for all the help! It’s much appreciated!