Actually, neither of them are better for upper end, new system usage.
the via chipset is actually faster on the MSI board.
Plus, it can utilize cool and quiet (nforce3 doesnt use it), saving noise and heat issues while you arent using the computer.
I prefer msi boards as they can 10-15% overclock your system without tweaking. I never would tweak my board to run better and such, i think its a bad idea, im against OC'ing. The msi board has an option to just choose for them to maximize your system, which works, and is easy and safe.
really, it doesnt matter much which board you get so long as it is there top board. the differences are small. THG did a review today and said how asus's gigabit controller was great and how some have 133mhz ATA controllers and stuff, both fairly useless for someone buying a system that will be hooked to the internet via broadband and who wants to use new hardrives. Some offer one more channel for sound. VIA is the only one that offers something useful I feel, and is the mature chipset which beat out nvidia for a year and half in its usage of 1ghz hypertransport.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by el_jefe_77 on 09/01/04 11:32 AM.</EM></FONT></P>