My father's computer just died, and I'm fairly confident it's the Motherboard. The mobo is a Socket A (Abit NF7) with a good integrated video card and audio unlike most available at the time. Choice 1 Mobo <-link Buy the only Socket A motherboard I could find looks like a complete POS w/o integrated video..... which means I would have to buy a cheapie AGP card. Choice 2 Modern Mobo with integrated graphics (decent video, no intel trash) & replace the CPU since mine won't work. Oh, and buy a new heatsink since I'm sure his won't work on a new CPU (was a nice $35 copper one) Opinions?
I would never consider a PC Chips motherboard an option. Presumably, this system has DDR SDRAM; any "modern" board you get will not support this memory so you'll have to replace that as well. You'll easily have $200 tied up in a new CPU, motherboard, and memory. A new CPU should include a heatsink/fan. Personally, I'd roll the dice and look for another Abit NF7. It looks like there are a couple new on eBay. If your father doesn't do a lot of really CPU- or graphics-intensive stuff, this would be the most economical way to go.
I recently went through the whole socket A motherboard ordeal. IT SUCKS trying to find a replacement motherboard. I don't know why they are so hard to find. I eventually found one with the features I wanted, but it took awhile. Still have 3 computers on socket A going strong. My biggest hurdle is video card / RAM. If you want good graphic performance you'll need a video card instead of onboard. New motherboard will require new cpu and new ram. So the cost difference is huge between just looking for a replacement socket a board or upgrading to AM2 or whatever.