my althlon scares me :)

hello everybody,
I recently bought a new pc; Athlon Xp 2.0, Asrock Sis748 mainboard, 512Mb/ddr +plus my old Geforce4 Ti 4200. I started overclocking the cpu but very soon my mainboard stopped showing Xp and the model but real number of herz. I stopped when I reached fsb 2x196 giving me 2.45Ghz (real clock), i have a standard cooler for athlon xp 3.2, the system runs perfectly giving the expected boost in performance - the temperatures: cpu - 46 and 54 C when i play, mainboard temp: 35 C. And the scary part for me is that knowing that such athlon has a real clock set to 1.67Ghz i overclocked it 50%, aren't such temeratures too high, can my cpu burn suddenly or how much will this affect its life expectancy? Anybody got any hints?
thanks
ulka

The load temperature of 54C is a little bit high, but anything less than 60C is probably "safe". My personal goal is to try to be at 50C or less at load (load meaning running a stress program such as Prime95).

That being said, you would do your system a lot of good by going to a good aftermarket cooler (like a Thermalright) instead of the stock cooler.

yes 60c is a little high 50c full load is safe and more stable try to improve your cooling

Get a whisperrock 2 and a decent fan and that will let u get below the 50deg mark.