AMD Socket 754: The Complete CPU List

This Socket 754 CPU list covers every processor that fits the socket: the Athlon 64 from ClawHammer to Venice, the Sempron on the Paris and Palermo cores, and the mobile Turion 64, Mobile Athlon 64 and Mobile Sempron chips, which also run in quite a few desktop boards. Filter by family, core, TDP or features such as AMD64 and SSE3, or type a model number or the OPN code printed on the CPU into the search box.

Socket 754 vs 939, 940 and AM2

AMD launched Socket 754 on 23 September 2003 together with the Athlon 64 3200+, while the FX-51 went to the server Socket 940. The memory controller sits inside the CPU, and on 754 it has a single 64-bit channel of ordinary unbuffered DDR. When Socket 939 brought dual-channel unbuffered memory to desktops in June 2004, 754 became AMD’s budget platform for the Sempron and the slower Athlon 64s. On 754 the HyperTransport link is specified for 800 MHz, against 1000 MHz on 939. AM2 with DDR2 replaced both sockets in May 2006.

None of these sockets accepts a CPU from another. The model number doesn’t give the socket away: an Athlon 64 3000+ or a Sempron 3000+ exists for both 754 and 939. On retail desktop 754 chips the character right after the model number in the OPN is an A (ADA3000AIK4BX); on 939 chips it is a D. Socket 754 never got a dual-core CPU, so for an X2 or a second memory channel you need the next socket up, covered in our Socket 939 CPU list.

Cores and revisions

The same model numbers hide several K8 revisions, and on Socket 754 the revision decides three things: SSE3, AMD64 on Semprons, and BIOS support.

• C0 and CG, 130 nm: ClawHammer, Newcastle and Paris. The 2003–2004 chips. ClawHammer is the 1 MB L2 die (some versions have half of it switched off), Newcastle has 512 KB (256 KB on the OEM 3300+), and Paris is the first Sempron with 256 KB or 128 KB. No SSE3, and Paris has no AMD64 at all.
• D0, 90 nm: Palermo. The 90 nm Sempron from early 2005. Still no SSE3. AMD sold it as a 32-bit chip, though some late batches shipped with AMD64 enabled under the same marking.
• E3 and E6, 90 nm: Palermo and Venice. The 2005 chips, all with SSE3. Every desktop E6 chip has AMD64, including all Semprons whose OPN ends in BX. The E3 Semprons (OPN ending in BO) are mixed: AMD didn’t market them as 64-bit, and reports differ, with AMD64 enabled on some chips and not on others. The Venice Athlon 64 came to 754 late and in small numbers.
• Mobile chips. The Turion 64 (Lancaster) and the revision E Mobile Athlon 64 (Newark) have SSE3 and AMD64. The older Mobile Athlon 64s (130 nm ClawHammer and Odessa, 90 nm Oakville) have AMD64 but no SSE3. AMD sold the 754 Athlon XP-M and every Mobile Sempron, the E6 Albany and Roma included, as 32-bit chips.

Every 754 processor supports the NX bit. SSE3 matters for current software: Google Chrome has required it since version 89 (2021).

The OPN tells you the revision. On desktop chips its last two letters are the code: AP means C0, AR and AX mean CG, BA means D0, BO means E3 and BX means E6. The digit before them is the L2 size: 2 for 128 KB, 3 for 256 KB, 4 for 512 KB, 5 for 1 MB. So SDA3100AIO3BX is a 256 KB Palermo E6 with AMD64, and SDA3100AIP3AX a 32-bit Paris. A Sempron ending in BA or BO has to be checked on the chip itself: CPU-Z lists x86-64 among the instructions, and on Linux the lm flag in /proc/cpuinfo means 64-bit support.

Will it run in my board?

• BIOS. Revision E chips, and the 64-bit mode of the later Semprons, need a BIOS from 2005 or newer. Check the board maker’s CPU support list and update the BIOS before you swap the CPU. If the current BIOS doesn’t know the new chip, the board may not boot with it, and you’ll need a CPU it already supports to do the flash.
• Chipset and graphics slot. The 2003–2004 chipsets are AGP only. The PCIe x16 boards came in 2005 and 2006 with nForce4, GeForce 6100, VIA K8T890 and K8M890, SiS 761GX and the rare ATI Radeon Xpress 200.
• Memory. One channel of unbuffered DDR, officially up to DDR400 with a maximum of three modules. With three installed, the controller drops to DDR333 or lower, so two are the better choice. Many 754 boards have only two slots.
• Mobile CPUs. ASUS officially lists every Turion 64 for its K8N-VM, K8V-X SE and K8N4-E, and the DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb is a known-good board. Elsewhere it’s trial and error, and some boards don’t boot with a mobile chip at all. On a desktop board these chips usually start at 4× (about 800 MHz) with a low voltage, so you set the multiplier and voltage by hand in the BIOS. Cool’n’Quiet rarely works with them. They also have no heat spreader, so mount the cooler carefully.

Which CPU to choose

• For current software: an E6 chip with an OPN ending in BX, that is, a Venice Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ if you can find one, or a Sempron 3000+ to 3400+. They have SSE3, AMD64 and Cool’n’Quiet, and the Athlon 64 3000+ is rated at only 51 W. The Sempron 3400+ (2.0 GHz, 256 KB) is the fastest desktop Sempron for 754.
• For old 32-bit games: the Athlon 64 3700+ (2.4 GHz, 1 MB of L2) is the fastest desktop 754 chip, followed by the 130 nm ClawHammer and Newcastle 3400+. None of them has SSE3.
• If your board takes mobile chips: the Mobile Athlon 64 4000+ (Newark, 2.6 GHz, 1 MB of L2) is the highest-clocked processor for the socket and has SSE3. A Turion 64 ML or MT is rated at 35 or 25 W, the coolest option for a quiet machine.
• For overclocking: the multiplier can’t be raised above stock on any 754 chip, mobile ones included, so you raise the reference clock from 200 MHz, lower the HyperTransport multiplier from 4× and set a memory divider. Palermo E6 Semprons typically reach 2.4–2.6 GHz on air, and Newark chips have been run at around 3 GHz.
• Avoid if you can: Paris and D0 Palermo Semprons (no SSE3, and mostly 32-bit only). Whatever the revision, the Sempron 2500+, 2600+ and 2800+ have no Cool’n’Quiet.

Building an Intel machine from the same years instead? Our Socket 478 CPU list covers the Pentium 4 and Celeron chips that competed with the Athlon 64.

FAQ

Which Windows runs on Socket 754?

The newest 64-bit versions that run are Windows 7 and the original Windows 8, and only on chips with AMD64. The 64-bit editions of Windows 8.1, 10 and 11 refuse to install on every 754 CPU, because they require the CMPXCHG16B instruction, which AMD only added in the 2006 AM2 chips. The 32-bit editions of Windows 8.1 and 10 run on all of them, the 32-bit-only Semprons included, and their 4 GB memory limit doesn’t matter here, since a 754 board takes at most 3 GB. Both are out of support, though: 8.1 since January 2023 and 10 since October 2025.

Does Linux still run on Socket 754?

On chips with AMD64, yes, with distributions that keep the original x86-64 baseline: Debian 12 and 13, the standard Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 images, Linux Mint 22, Fedora, Arch and openSUSE Tumbleweed. Distributions built for x86-64-v2 or higher, such as RHEL 9 and 10 with their clones and openSUSE Leap 16, won’t boot on any K8 processor. The 32-bit-only Semprons need a 32-bit distribution, and those are disappearing: Debian 13 dropped the 32-bit installer and kernel, so Debian 12, supported until June 2028, is the last full Debian release for them.