AMD's Athlon 64 4000+ processor doesn't really bring anything new to the table in terms of features. Like previous members of the socket 939 Athlon 64/FX family, it supports two of AMD's showcase technologies: Cool N' Quiet and Enhanced Virus Protection.

Cool N' Quiet is a noise and power saving technology which allows the CPU to dynamically throttle its speed along with a thermally controlled heatsink fan. These adjustments are made based on the current CPU load.

Enhanced Virus Protection is a new technology unique to the Athlon 64 CPU. It is designed to halt certain virus and exploit attacks as they occur. EVP works hand-in-hand with Microsoft's DEP (Data Execution Prevention) code introduced in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. When enabled (by using a compatible processor like the Athlon 64 4000+) the operating system watches for certain anomalies that often signify a virus or exploit attack, like code being executed in memory spaces where program code does not belong. In this way, buffer overflow attacks which overload a legitimate memory space allowing foreign code to be run in unprotected memory location, will be stopped short as soon as they occur.

Apart from the above technologies, the AMD Athlon 64 4000+ also supports the standard Athlon 64 feature list including SSE2, a 1000MHz (up and down stream) Hypertransport link to motherboard, integrated dual channel memory controller, 8 extra 64-bit registers, etc.

Overclocking the Athlon64 4000+

Using MSI's K8T Neo2 motherboard (VIA K8T800 chipset) we were able to crank the Athlon64 4000+ up to a decent 2.7GHz, and maintain full stability. To do this, we had to enable the board's 6:5 memory divider and raise the CPU voltage to 1.7V. Next up, the benchmarks you have been waiting for!