Nope! Its alright, its not that noob, they have the same amount of pins and are the same size, but they're keyed differently (thats not the only reason it wont work though, different memory controllers, voltages etc are used) There are a few boards hanging around that have both DDR2 and DDR3 slots though.
^^ Motherboards that support both DDR2 and DDR3 can a) only run one type at a time, and b) don't have good performance for either. Make a decision and stick with it.
I think this runs true for so many things in life but I'm afraid that if you get something that is designed to be multi-purpose then it tends to be a series of compromises, by this I mean it doesn't do anything very well but does an acceptable job for most. If you want to get the best results then you should get something thats designed for that task, although sometimes you still don't get a good performance. It will depend on how much you want to push things, DDR2 still has a lot of life left in it yet, DDR3 is still very expensive at the moment both for MB's and actual memory. Personally I'd stick with some good quality DDR2 and a decent MB to run it on, you can always overclock it if you need to squeeze some more life out of it.
thats cool, but i'm having trouble deciding exactly which mobo to go for. ive decided on ddr2 since its affordable but should i go for SLI or crossfire? and if neither then intel p35 or x38?
SLI and Crossfire aren't worth it unless you are using 2 copies of the best graphics card out there at the time (at the moment that would be 2 8800 Ultras which will set you back a total of £800). That covered, it depends on budget. At the moment the cheapest X38 board is £130 or there abouts, whereas the P35s start off a lot cheaper. Certainly the initial reviews that I have seen of the X38 chipset indicate that it is worth spending the extra on over a P35 board, so if you can afford the extra then that is probably your best bet.
