I wish to upgrade my PC to an Athlon 2.2GHz. I now have 1.2GHz AMD Athlon mounted on an IWILL FSB133 motherboard. My RAM is 516M PC133. I have WIN98SE and would like to keep it. My first question is: Is the difference in performance significant enough to go through the trouble and expense. Second question is: What else should I be concerned about. All the associated components are pretty much up to date.

Zero Bubble

I agree with Brett, a 2.2ghz athlon is going to give you a big, fat performance boost.

Question, Is that 2.2ghz? or an XP2200+  ? Because the XP2200 runs slower than 2.2ghz.

Also, Your next upgrade option will be much more expensive, moving to a DDR system will entail a new motherboard and Ram chips. If you think you might be upgrading to a DDR system in the near future, I strongly suggest purchasing a CPU that supports 333mhz front side bus speed such as an AMD XP2600+, as it will be compatible with your next upgrade. I just bought a 2600+ after recent price drops and they should get cheaper soon.

Incidentally, I put this XP 2600 CPU on a
Soltek SL-75FRN2-L mainboard and upped the CPU multiplier one notch in bios from 12.5 to 13 and it runs cool and fine at 2.2 ghz. 3dmark score on this system with a GF4 TI4200 and 1gig of PC2700 CL2 ram is 12200

Congo's correct... we've hit that magic barrier where you can build (or buy) an incredible computer for peanuts...

DDR PC2700 (333) RAM is, for all practical purposes, as fast as RAMBUS and much cheaper...

A 2-3 ghz computer with 1gig of RAM.. will be "technically current" for much longer than we've grown use to.  (I.E.  stuff being obsolete in 3 months    )

You'll be well served for at least 2 years,,,IMHO

dfhg