A lot of people have had problems with msi boards being retardedly finicky about hardware as well as failing prematurely due to cheap components used in their construction.
I use a neo2 platinum and for as many bad review people have given it, its a lot more user friendly to me than any dfi i have owned. It does have its quirks but it works, usually without questions <_< >_>.
The best all around board i have owned was a MSI KT4 Ultra SR. that thing was stable, fast and hella cheap in the athlon xp days, of course its agp functionality was buggered, no fault of msi though.
Just my opinion, but if your looking for a board to go mad on overclocking with, the msi nine out of ten times probably isnt the most ideal. but for a moderate overclock, and a machine that just works damn nicely and has a lot of features, they arent too bad for the money.
I would probably pick an msi over an asus, but that is of course from personal experience with asus. Every user is different and has different experience.