I built my own with an AMD 1700+ sometime ago and I am quite happy with it. AMD does give you more bang for your buck. Especially important with it is
your buck.
Overclocking is overrated. Just a toy that you play with, then forget about.
Some notes.
They do run hot. I had to add extra cooling fans after monitoring the chip temperature in the summer (with a utility called Motherboard Monitor).
Be sure to install the heat sink properly. What happens when you don't is not pretty.
Also, you usually need an AMD ready power supply, which you can get from whomever you buy the chip from.
The 1700+ means that it is really a 1500 that is supposed to be equivalent to an Intel 1700. Yeah, just like the 14 oz cans of coffee really made the same as a pound of the old stuff.
The Athlon XP socket A's do run hot.....the AMD64 3000+ do NOT...running both of mine with stock AMD cooler that comes with the retail package.... AMD has a feature Cool and Quiet that throttles down the processor when it is idling, really helps.
I have cases that have temperature probes (attached to the sides of the heat sinks.) , and for what I am doing they very rarely get above 35 C.... usually right around 30C.
The motherboards seem to vary all over the lot on the temperature that the BIOS reports....