HP is shipping its Business Desktop d325 Series personal computers and is offering among the options Athlon XP microprocessors with 3200+ model number from Advanced Micro Devices clocked at 2.33GHz – 130MHz higher than the frequency of typical Athlon XP chips with 3200+ model number.

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ microprocessor integrates 512KB of L2 cache and runs at 2.20GHz clock-speed. To further increase performance of its seventh generation processors against Intel Pentium 4, AMD unveiled 400MHz EV-6 bus for its new chip early this year, while VIA Technologies and NVIDIA Corporation brought appropriate core-logic products to support the new CPU. In addition to Athlon 3200+ with 400MHz FSB, AMD released its Athlon XP 3000+ microprocessor with 400MHz bus and 2.10GHz clock-speed. As a result of introductions, the company got two CPUs with 400MHz bus. But apparently, the firm does not want to exclude its little bit outdated 333MHz bus from its high-end plans too.

Today our colleagues from OverClockers.ru web-site noticed AMD Athlon XP 3200+ chips with 333MHz bus offered by HP as an option for Business Desktop d325 Series personal computers. The PCs are build upon NVIDIA nForce2 IGP core-logic that does not officially support 400MHz bus, though, according to some reports, can handle it pretty flawlessly.

Because the fact that one of the most popular chipsets does not support the latest K7 products, AMD may supply a number of 3200+ and 3000+ chips with 333MHz to its OEM customers, such as HP. Even though it is not that easy to clock the AMD Athlon XP microprocessors at 2.33GHz speed, the lion’s share of PCs is not supplied with the top processors, therefore, Advanced Micro Devices hardly experiences any difficulties with supplying enough such CPUs.

According to X-bit labs analysis, 2.30 ~ 2.40GHz speed is the limit for the vast majority of AMD Athlon XP processors based on Barton core with 512KB of L2 cache. Speeds above 2.40GHz are achievable only when untraditional cooling solutions are utilized for CPUs with core voltage pumped up.

It is not clear whether AMD provides its 2.33GHz seventh generation processors only to HP, or such chips may also transpire in retail channel.

AMD spokesperson did not return email seeking for comment at press time.