Maximum RAM in XP System

[Rossua]

Hi, I have an XP Pro SP2 system on which I am running VMWare Workstation and a number of virtual machines, currently with 2GB DDR SDRAM, and I am considering putting additional RAM into it. It can take a maximum of 4GB RAM (and currently has 2 out of the 4 memory slots populated),

(specs :-
P4 3.0GHz
Intel D865GBF mobo
Intel Chipset 865G
2 x 1GB Micron PC3200 DDR SDRAM (Dual Channel confiuration)
Radeon X1650 PRO AGP 8x 512MB RAM)

but I hear that XP 32-bit version cannot address the full 4GB of RAM (even though the mobo & chipset supports it), as it has to map some hardware memory addresses into the 4GB address space.

My question is should I just get 2 x 1GB RAM sticks and put them in the two remaining slots, and then accept whatever memory is usable by XP, eg I might get 3.5GB, or should I just go for 2 x 512MB sticks and settle for 3GB total RAM ?

I've heard that putting in 4GB RAM in this situation may damage performance of the system - is this true ?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[glc]

Max it out at 4 and take what you get. You may lose performance with 4x1, but not with 2x2. You may lose performance anyway with all 4 slots filled regardless of capacity.

[Rossua]

Thanks for advice - I will go for the 4GB. I am going for Crucial memory which I assume is a good brand for memory.

[Alaron]

Crucial is solid, just skip over the "Ballistix" sticks.

[Rossua]

Thank you for info - I certainly don't like the sound of those Ballistix modules - I'd imagine if you need to manually set voltages in BIOS before using them, then there should be a major warning given somewhere so the user would know - very odd