I use a biostar MCP6P M2+ micro atx board, and it runs most am2 and am3 cpus that require 95 watts or less. If you want to run a cpu at higher wattage, checkout the micro atx 785 chipset boards. You may have some problems if your windows installation is tied to an acer bios chip. Try running cpuid to see what brand motherboard your acer uses. Even with backup dvd's of xp or vista, they might not work without an acer identification of the bios. My hp backup disks wouldn't work on a non hp motherboard.