Computer crashing

I had a head problem. An AMD processor takes less than 5 seconds to overhead. Thus... a head problem can occur RIGHT at startup. What gear are you sporting?

I do have an AMD processor, it's pretty old, an athlon xp 1600+. I suppose it could be the processor, but I don't see why it would start happening now after not ever doing it for over a year. The fan works fine. Just took everything apart earlier today and cleaned it all out and it's still being a bitch.

Also, when my computer is booting it stops when checking the real clock speed of my processor, which I guess could point another finger at it.