Advise an MP system, please

Greetings, Mighty All! I am asked to chose an apropriate budget Dual-processor system for research needs. (x86, like P-III or Athlon, of course, running SuSE 7.x ;-) ) can someone help me to choose an aporopriate hardware parts for it? Are there any good experiences of working with such systems? (some people say that VIA chipsets and/or athlon processors are bad, is it true? other people advised intel-815 -- but there is only 512Mb memory limit for it -- that is not enough.) Sincerelly waiting for suggestions! SHiFT. Moscow State University, Dept of Physics.