I would like to put together a computer with three hard drives. Two
removable - 1 with win 98SE OS and 1 with win XP OS. The 3rd is an
internal drive for files/data. The question is what mobo and CPU
configuration would be best suited for this application. I checked
both the Intel and Athlon web sites. Intel indicates that the chips
designed with HT Technology are not compatible w/ 98se unless you
disable HT in the BIOS. On the other hand Athlon implies that the XP
chips are compatible with all older windows products. Probably all
good info but didn't provide me with much guidance.
Also the video card needs to support 2 monitors. I would like to
convert my mini DV’s into CD’s so the card would also have to have
that capability. I’d appreciate it if you could help me out with this as
well.
Value and versatility are important.

Some free advice...

If you are on a budget, go with the Athlon.  There isn't much software
that can take advantage of HT yet, so you're looking at a very small
performance difference between the Intel and the Athlon which won't
make the additional cost worthwhile.

If your MiniDV source is a digital camcorder, it probably has a
FireWire output, in which case you'll want a motherboard or an add-on
card with FireWire ports.  That will enable you to download the raw
video from your camera to your computer.  Compressing that video and
burning it onto a CD is normally done with an additional software
application.  Bundles containing video software and FireWire hardware
are available, but you may find that to get the features you want, you
will have to buy separate software.

One comment, is that your video card is not responsible for coverting
video from dv format onto cds, your processor does that with the help
of software. So, for that task, any video card will do.