Advice on 3000+ 333 or 400 fsb

[HD man]

I am in the market for a new cpu and would like to upgrade to the Athlon XP 3000+ 400fsb. My mobo is the Asus A7V8X-X which is supposed to support DDR 400. My ram is OC PC3200, 512mb.
The problem is, I went to a computer show today hoping to buy the 400fsb and not the 333fsb 3000+ but as it turns out the 400 fsb is oem only and no vendors carried it. I did check stepping codes and found several of the 333fsb manufactured before week 39 which I assume means the cpu is not "locked" so I can overclock if I want.
Would I be better off with an "unlocked" 3000+ 333fsb cpu or take chances on a 3000+ 400fsb from an internet vendor which may or may not be "locked"

 

[Shade00]

You won't be able to run the 3000+ 400mhz FSB chip at full speed without doing some mods to the chip itself. The A7V8X may support DDR400, but it doesn't support 400mhz FSB. It only has a 1/5 PCI divider.