I have a similar setup to the post above;
Intel Pentium 4 1800 (NW,RET,478)
ABIT BD7 II - RAID (INTEL 845e mobo)
60GB MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX+9 133/7200
Kingmax 512MB PC2100 FAST DDR SDRAM
Soundblaster live platinum
Delta 44
I recently put together this setup and it performs extremely well.
I think that if you have the money stay with an intel chipset. The 845e is highly recommended at
www.sospubs.co.uk Manufacturers to note are ASUS, ABIT,GIGABYTE for a quality mobo. If I had enough money I would have bought the ASUS P4B53E mobo.
As these mobos are socket 478, you will have to go for an intel processor. Any of the P4 'Northwood' processors are v.good but will cost a bit extra. Try and get one with 512k level 2 cache.
Do a lot of research and compare prices to get the best deal.