Well there are all sorts of Socket types, depending on the CPU will depend on what mobo will support it, some of the new sockets are 939 which is the AMD Athlon 64 series, which right now would be the best bang for the buck. Just match up the socket typ to the socket type supported by the mobo its easy, look on Newegg and search MOBO and find one that takes a likeing to you, loook at the socket type, and then go to CPU and select the socket type. There you go easy as that. Newegg lists most everything you need to know about it. I built my first about 4 months ago and well i did it of not knowing a darn thing, just putting things together on paper and newegg.com hope i have been some help to you any more questions im sure i could answer or someone else could. Duzz
And no just socket, thats all you need. Most times if the Mobo is a 370 socket board it will support all the cpu from 370 socket. But there are agian AMD and Pentiums out there. All up to your likeing.