Intel's 865G chipset (codenamed Springdale), is almost identical to the 875 (Canterwood), and is designed to support the new Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading as well as the 800MHz frontside bus (FSB). It also includes 8x AGP, USB 2.0 and Serial ATA support.
Dual-channel DDR gives a performance improvement over single-channel, which is especially important for the Pentium 4, as it sports a faster system bus than the Athlon XP, and thus demands more memory bandwidth to get the most from the CPU.
The memory performance is most noticeable in multimedia and 3D-intensive applications, which depend a great deal on the memory.
The 865G platform has been specifically tailored for use as a stable platform for corporate and consumer users, while the 865P and PE boards are geared towards mainstream consumers and speed.
The Intel 865G chipset also has optional Gigabit Ethernet, surround sound connectivity, Intel's Extreme Graphics 2 and SATA RAID with the ICH5R Southbridge.
The cut-down 865P sports identical functions, although it operates at only 533MHz FSB and supports DDR333, not 800MHz and DDR400.