"AMD currently has three PGA939 products: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, AMD Athlon 64 3800+, AMD Athlon 64 FX-51" little typo there at th end

Looks like interesting news...Two things have got me thinking.

(1) AMD wants to be efficient as possible by selling those CPUs that don't meet FX-53 spec. So they clock'em down slightly and sell them as regular Athlon64. This method of selling CPUs is nothing new as Intel does it as well with Celerons.

(2) AMD is buying time. They could be having slight issues with 90nm CPUs and need more time to resolve them. From a PR point of view, its better than saying we're pushing back the schedule for this next generation of AMD64 CPUs.

In any case, it feels like there's no real need for the FX series once the regular Athlon64s exceed them at a lower price. (Same for the Extreme Edition of P4s)

It's very clear they are having issues getting chips up to speed. And if 90nm were the answer for that, they'd have released a 90nm FX just to keep that line moving. Instead they released a lower speed 90nm chip, making it VERY clear they are having trouble getting the chips to run at high speed, in either line size.

Have to wait and see if this clears up but it spells some trouble for them.

the AMD Athlon 64 3600+ isnt clear yet, the product may be a cut-down version of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 with core-clock reduced to 2.20GHz. Specifications are that the AMD Athlon 64 3600+ look similar compared to those of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 product, with exception of 1000MHz HT bus