GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI

[eldinv]

i know this board is really old but i wanted to know if it would make sense for me to upgrade my AMD Athlon x64 Dual Core Processor 6000+

one gigabytes website it says it can take AM3 socket cpu, how is this possible when its an AM2 socket. do you think without replacing PSU or GPU i would get better performance buying one of the new AM3 Dual Core processors, like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846


is it possible for it to take a quad core, i know the hyper transport is 4000 and my board will downgrade it to 2000.. what does this mean in terms of performance will i notice an increase in performance compared to my processor now?

heres a liink of a quad core thats really cheap for some reason?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103809

[absic]

Hi

gigabytes website it says it can take AM3 socket cpu, how is this possible when its an AM2 socket.

in answer to this question, it is possible because AMD designed the CPU to be backwards compatible. The AM3 CPU's can fit into AM2/AM2+ boards but (there's always a but) if you put an AM3 into one of the older boards you do not always get the full power of the processor, Hence the reason that the Hyper transport will downgrade to 2000 from 4000. Also with the older boards they usually need a BIOS update to allow for newer processors and not all boards get this update.

is it possible for it to take a quad core

Yes, your board will take a Quad core, but you are a little limited to your choice. Before buying a new processor check out the Supported CPU list for your Mobo. Remember to check which revision number your Mobo is as there are 3 versions. Also remember to make sure that your BIOS is up-to-date or you may have problems if it isn't.
Here are the links for you:
Rev 1.0 http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2287
Rev 1.1 http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2383
Rev 2.0 http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2539

will i notice an increase in performance compared to my processor now?

Yes, you will notice an improvement in performance.

Hope this helps