What does a motherboard do???

[3quilibrium]

I know that the motherboard is the base for all the hardware in the PC and that the role is a very important one to say the least. But, I have an ASRock ALIVE SATA2-GLAN AM2 motherboard and want to upgrade to an Asus M3A AMD 770 (Socket AM2+). Will this make any difference to my benchmark figures and help to speed up my machine?

 

[HangTime]

Chipset performance does make a bit of a difference to benchmarks, but nothing major (compared to cpu/gfx card at least).

Most people will only ever change motherboard for the following reasons:

1) Compatibility. Either because they want a new cpu which runs on a different socket, or because they are getting stability issues when uses with other components in their rig.
2) Poor overclocking performance. Some boards either have very limited options or just suck at it.

Changing a motherboard is one of the hardest / annoying upgrades you can do (due to having to unplug all the other components, take it out the case, and often reinstall windows), so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a genuine need to do so. It's a lot of hassle for the rather limited gain otherwise.