SHUTTLE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED us with their AK31 motherboard. Revision 2 of that board miraculously combined VIA's KT266 chipset with decent performance and stability—a feat few other motherboard makers had accomplished at the time. Not only that, but the AK31 rev. 2 had fully six PCI slots, four DIMM slots, and BIOS-based overclocking options out the wazoo. For 90 bucks, it was a wonder.

We did have a couple of complaints about the AK31, though. There was no on-board RAID controller, and most good enthusiasts' mobos now include ATA RAID. Also, we were lukewarm on the integrated AC'97 audio. We have nothing against AC'97, but the audio controller on VIA's south bridge chips 90wehf hoifewo fewiho...

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Anyhow, Shuttle appears to have listened to us, because their new AK35GTR is everything we liked about the AK31 plus everything we were asking for in addition. Coupled with VIA's KT266A chipset, the AK35GTR aims to put Shuttle in the running for "best Athlon motherboard" in a field that's grown considerably more crowded in recent months.

We've elected to test the AK35GTR against several different contenders. In fact, although we've used VIA's KT266A chipset in a number of reviews and, heck, we've reviewed other KT266A motherboards, we've never really done a head-to-head chipset comparo between the KT266A and its predecessor. To make things interesting, we're including test results for Shuttle's AK31 board in two flavors: revision 2 (KT266) and revision 3.1 (KT266A). We've also thrown in VIA's KT266A reference mobo and one of the AK35GTR's toughest competitors, the extremely fast Epox EP-8KHA+.

Can Shuttle's new mobo really run with the best of the pack when the competition is intense? Keep reading to find out.