Mobo with *REALLY* bad performance

[gigabyte1024]

I acquired 2 AOpen MX3W-E2 boards a while back.
They've been sitting around for quite some time, but have not been abused.
I built one up and sold it about a year ago, and it still runs like a champ.

I just built another up to give it away, and it runs dog slow. As far as I can tell, it has to do with IDE performance, but I know the HDD is good, it works in other systems.

I've tried all the usual stuff:
different HDD
different RAM
different PSU
removed add-in cards
Updated the BIOS (v1.08)
seperated CD & HDD to different IDE channels
tweaked BIOS (disable onboard sound & lan)
triple checked master slave jumpers (HDD Master ch1, CD Master ch2)
[edit]Hell, I even tried different CPUs[/edit]

I'm installing Win2K now and it's been going for well over 2 hours. It's on the last two stages now (it's been "saving settins" for about 38 minutes)
I'm led to believe it's IDE related, because copying files in the text setup portion was really painful one by one event (drivers.cab took about 30 seconds)

Am I missing anything here guys? Anyone out ther have this board?
You guys are my last hope!

>Br@d