Motherboard specs confuse my memory choice

I have started a build with a MSI 880GMA-e53 motherboard. The specs for its supported memory are listed as follows:

"Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600* (OC) DRAM, 16GB Max"

I initially misunderstood the specs and purchased 4g of 1600 MHz memory. Geil with 9-9-9-28 1.5v to be exact. I asked MSI tech support whether I could use the ram or not and here was my reply:

Regarding your concern, this motherboard can support four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600* (OC) DRAM. "OC" is the abbreviate of overclocking, which means that it maybe can not boot up or damage motherboard or run lower speed when you install DDR3 1600, so we don't recommend you use DDR3 1600 for system stability.

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Their memory test support page only lists sticks up to 1333 MHz.

I am unfamiliar with memory overclocking. Is it possible for me to run the RAM I have safely at its rated speed? Is the 1600* (OC) specification to mean that you can run a slower chip overclocked to 1600 MHz? Should I just exchange my unopened RAM for something that runs at 1333 MHz?

Thanks to anyone who spends the time to help me out, as I am completely lost.

The RAM is rated up to a certain speed. Anything below that would work as well.

For example, yours is 1600MHz at 9-9-9-28 timings and 1.5v. You could run the ram at 1333MHz at 9-9-9-28 timings at 1.5v without issues.

Yeah it should run fine, and you will probably even be able to get 1600MHz by changing the FSBRAM ratio / memory multiplier. All RAM have several profiles, DDR3 generally has profiles for 1066, 1333 and 1600Mhz etc (up to the max frequency) with their own timings.