Hmm, that never happened to my IC7-MAX3. I'm assuming your voltages are stock? You may have not gotten anything around the CPU die, but could you have smudged some on other parts of the board? Not that it would really matter...
If you can manage, try to clean off your board. On my old Asus, (forgot what model number A7V266 something or other) I discovered some gunk and possibly moisture on one part of the board. Before I found it and cleaned it off, bios was acting all screwy. After the board was clean things were fine again. I'm not sure if it was because that stuff was insulating the circuit making it hot, or short circuiting some non-essential on-board component. Anyways, my point is, try and scan your board for any visual anomalies.
P.S. crazythunder, I used to have that Hypnovista screensaver! Hilarous! I haven't seen it again since 1995.