I would suggest going with the AMD 955BE. It is a decent priced CPU and is quad core. Games nowadays use more than 1 core. They don't utilize all 4 calls very well but you will get better performance off of a quad core vs a single core or dual core CPU. The additional cores are generally used for physics in physics engines like Havoc. Also games that have a lot of detail or a lot of different things going on at once really benefit from a quad core. Like the up and coming Starcraft 2 will thrive on a quad vs a dual.
Don't sell yourself cheap on the CPU only to save a few bucks. AMD is still neck and neck with Intel for games and is often faster in some games. They only lag behind in video editing and the like. So if you are getting one to make sure it games well, I suggest the 955BE. Especially since games are getting better and better at using multiple cores.
You will want a motherboard with DDR3, it is a worthwhile investment as DDR3 is starting to show major benefits over DD2. In the end you will be spending not more than 100 extra dollars for the 955BE, AM3 mobo and DDR3 RAM. The system will last much longer than and you will get every penny worth of that extra 100 for going just a little bit better.
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