When VIA announced the KT333 back in February, a lot of people expected something big. The VIA KT266A is arguably the best chipset available for the AMD platform, and considering the jump in performance from the KT266 to the KT266A, it was natural to think the KT333 would offer vast improvement. Of course, by now, most of you already know this wasn't the case. Here's a bit from their site...

"The VIA Apollo KT333 is the first VIA chipset to feature DDR333 memory offering 25% more memory bandwidth to the CPU. Supporting DDR200/266/333 memory and a complete range of 200/266MHz Front Side Bus AMD Athlon" XP and AMD Duron" processors, the VIA Apollo KT333 provides lightning fast access to the faster system memory enabling stunning performance across the full application range."

Now, I'm sure some of you are aware that although the KT333 supports DDR333 (or PC2700), the has only been ratified recently. All this fancy overclocking PC3000 ram you see is exactly that... overclocked. In anycase, support is there when more true PC2700 certified ram comes out, and your current PC2100 (or your "overclocked PC2700") ram is supported.

Key Features

Supports AMD Duron" and Athlon" Socket A processors
200/266MHz FSB settings
Support for AGP 2X/4X
Supports up to 4.0GB DDR200/266/333 SDRAM
266MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge V-Link
Support for Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) Card Standard
Integrated 6 channel AC-97 Audio
Integrated MC-97 Modem
Integrated 10/100 BaseT Ethernet and 1/10Mb HomePNA controller
Support for ATA 33/66/100
6 USB ports, UHCI compliant
Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow and AMD's PowerNow"
552-pin BGA VT8366A North Bridge
376-pin BGA VT8233 South Bridge

Any of the above look familiar? That's because it's still the KT266A, but with official DDR333 support. The VT8233 South Bridge might be new to a few of you, but later KT266A motherboards had this chip. Other than that, you're looking at a KT266A with DDR333 (official) support.

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