Best overclocking CPU?

I have scoured the internet trying to find the best bang for my buck, so I'll be blunt:

I have a small budget, so I am looking for a socket 754 Athlon 64 single core that is not a Sempron. It seems to me after looking everywhere that I'll probably get the best overclock with a ClawHammer 3700+. The reason I think this is because it is the highest RATED speed in socket 754 that has 1MB of L2 cache, and it has a 12x multi. I personally prefer the larger cache to a higher clock as I have seen first hand a 1MB cache with a lower clock beat (even if only by a small bit) a 512KB cache with a higher clock.

I have a Gigabyte GA-K8U board so I know the overclocking isn't going to be the best, but I figure if I get the proc now then I can get the DFI 754 board that I really want later on (gotta love ebay).

If anyone has an opinion on if there is something better in socket 754 that I should check into, please let me know.

I was in your shoes prior to me getting this C2D rig. If I were you, pick up the s754 Venice. I bought the 3000+ Venice and clocked it up to 2.6 no problem and it beat my 3400+ Newcastle @ 2.68 in every bench. Im guessing mainly because the Venice is a 90nm CPU while the Newcastle and Clawhammer are 130nm.

Its hard to go wrong with a S754 Venice. For $60 or less, they are some of the best bang for your buck CPUs out there.

I agree. When I purchased the processor it was a nice little performance boost paired up with 2GB of memory to hold me over till my current setup.

Ok I'm going to look at some on ebay now. Thanks for the quick responses!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0001028+1051707438&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343
the 3200 looks good

I would get this AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.2GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor - OEM