Enter the VIA KX133 chipset with features to spare, and coming from a company that Asus had already experienced success with on their Apollo Pro 133A-based P3V4X motherboard. The first Asus board using the KX133 chipset was the K7V-RM, but it was a Micro-ATX solution and didn't exactly turn the heads of the performance crowd. Thankfully, Asus also released the K7V, a fully featured KX133 ATX solution for both the power community and retail sector.

The Asus K7V officially supports the AMD Athlon from 550 MHz to 1 GHz, and has PC100, PC133, and VCM133 SDRAM capability. This leaves your options pretty open with both Athlon speeds and memory choices, although the Virtual Channel SDRAM (VCM133) alternative might be a moot point for most users. Other features of the Asus K7V include ATA-66 data transfers, AGP 4X, quad USB ports and an excellent JumperFree BIOS and system setup. Added to that is an AMR slot and AC '97 Audio and an optional Aureal 3D sound chipset. Overall, the Asus K7V is an extremely comprehensive motherboard and offers just about everything a potential Athlon buyer would want.

The Asus K7V utilizes the KX133 chipset, which is very similar to the Intel-based Apollo Pro 133A and offers comparable features for the Athlon market. The KX133 on the Asus K7V consists of the VT8371 North Bridge controller along with the VT82C686A South Bridge controller. The VT8371 North Bridge controls the 200 MHz EV6 FSB, AGP 4X and PC100/PC133/VCM133 memory, while the VT82C686A South Bridge handles all I/O duties, ATA-33/66 transfers, USB ports, power management, as well as temperature, voltage and fan speed monitoring.