Chris, EQPlayer. I appreciate the replies regarding AM3 longevity. I expected it to be around a while, and you confirmed that.
I should clarify, though, that I'm not worried about a socket change, as I'm more interested in popping one the AM3 processors onto my current AM2+ board rather than a new build altogether. A motherboard change to AM3, without whatever the RD8XX chipset may bring to the platform when it finally comes along, seems to simply offer DDR3 support at this juncture. DDR3 can easily be perceived as an added expense instead of a feature, depending upon how one uses their PC. The expense point only increases should the user already have some DDR2-800, 1066, or better in their current setup. Chris's final comments about the "already-efficient memory subsystem" accentuate that point.
With the new chipset so far off, there's plenty of time for AMD to bring in a handful of new CPUs to the AM3 marketplace if they desire or plan to do so. We saw a plethora of AM2 and AM2+ CPUs appear rather quickly at times, which leaves me wondering if or how soon we will see the same for AM3. That makes me a little hesitant to drop ~$250 now on this 955 while wondering if their next flagship is right around the corner.
Though, I can't argue the fact that any of the Phenom II's would be a huge increase in performance over my current X2, and this one would absolutely obliterate mine...