Computer randomly died?!

For starters, my rig (well...old rig now):
Athlon 2000+ (Palomino)
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP ~ F14 BIOS
512Mb GeIL DDR333
Radeon 9800 Pro
320w Random PSU that came with case

So anyway, I get up this morning and turn on my PC, it starts and everything seems normal UNTIL it turns off about 2 or 3 seconds later. Hmm... So I try turn it back on, nothing happens. I then immediately start troubleshooting, noticing that when I press the power button the Ram LED on my motherboard lights up - basically meaning the motherboard is powered, the power LED flashes on for a split second and my cpu fan also spins for a split second, then nothing. No fans spinning, nothing - except the mysterious RAM LED. I try switching PSUs, same thing happens. I unplug everything, clear CMOS etc etc, still the same story. No fans spin, no POST, no beeps!

Normally I would never think of posting on a forum for help but right now I'm pretty distraught and confused. You see I have no idea whether my CPU has died, or my motherboard has.

Nothing was overclocked and nothing was at all dodgy... Everything worked fine last night, and I spose for a few seconds even this morning. The motherboard has no obvious burnt out capacitors or signs of damage. I took the HSF off my Athlon and it doesn't look overly healthy (was using Stock HSF and thermal pad) but there isn't anything there to suggest it had burnt out.

I can't troubleshoot further without another motherboard or CPU at my disposal and I really need to figure out where the fault lies. Anyone have any idea of what happend to this once working system ?
Ideas on whether the cpu or motherboard is at fault here would be greatly appreciated.

It may have done just that... randomly died. I had the same problem once with a slot a AMD athlon thunderbird 900. it ran fine for about 2 years with no overclocking and just gave up with the same symptoms one day when i reset it (took out a quite expensive asus motherboard too). After extensive headaches/testing and frying spare components, i figured out it was the chip. It just decided it was done. I can still put it in a different motherboard for a few minutes before it starts doing the same thing again (and consequently toasting another motherboard).

If indeed it is the same problem however, your ram and all other peripherals should be fine, but its time to toss the chip and motherboard.

In conclusion, the chip is at fault. And it took the motherboard with it.

Yeah thanks, lucky I read that now as I was planning on testing the CPU in a friend's motherboard...
The CPU is still under AMD's 3 year limited warranty - purchased last year in May.. I wonder if it's worth returning

Don't forget about the power supply, I would check that first, since it's easy to test, and cheap to replace.

Yeah a different PSU was the first thing I tried, it's written rather discretely in my little story, sorry about that


UPDATE: Problem solved - bought a new motherboard, cheap MSI KT6 Delta.. everything's fine now
Still have no idea as to why my Gigabyte motherboard stopped working like that, oh well..