VIA's KT133A - Overclocking w/ the 133MHz FSB: The "Issue"

Avoidance is the Best Solution

One of the most direct solutions to any problem is to avoid it.  In this case, that means going with a board that is either fully jumperless or completely jumpered.  These boards modify the default multiplier at the same time they set the FSB speed. 

Jumperless boards include the ABIT KT7A-RAID and ASUS A7V133.  A quick email to ABIT confirmed that the default FSB speed on the KT7A-RAID, before the BIOS is initialized, is 100MHz.   The ASUS A7V133 most likely does the same thing.

A fully jumpered motherboard overcomes the “problem” in a similar way since, once again, multiplier and FSB are both set simultaneously - as soon as the board is powered on in this case.   So far, thethe ASUS A7V133 and the AOpen AK73 ProA are the only examples of fully jumpered boards. Of course, the ASUS A7V133 can work in either fully jumpered or fully jumperless mode, and that’s why it shows up in both categories here.

We tested this theory on all the above mentioned boards with a 100% success rate on our Athlon 800 (8x100). 

The dipswitches found on the ASUS A7V133 for changing the clock multiplier

The dipswitch found on the AOpen AK73 ProA for modifying the clock multiplier