Motherboard shopping......need major help

I had my friend help me put together a computer online and the motherboard he suggested was MSI "865PE Neo2-V" i865PE Chipset for Intel socket 478. I double checked with someone else to see if he would have done anything differently and he said that MSI wasn't a very dependable motherboard, that I should try Asus. In the process of telling my friend that helped me build my computer I seemed to offend him by asking another opinion. I have some knowledge of computers but not enough to make decisions about hardware, I don't know what I am even looking for in a motherboard, with all the different slots and sockets and chipsets......... I need some major help!

The motherboard must be matched to the CPU you intend to use. I never used MSI. I can vouche that Asus motherboards are very good, that's what I have in my frankentower twins. The newest one I overclock straight from the Ai booster, giving me a 3.0GHz computer from a 2.6GHz CPU without breaking a sweat I did find a benchmark comparison of Asus vs Gigabyte vs MSI motherboards of several different models (but not the one you cite) which seemed to always come out: Asus #1 (Good), Gigabyte #2 (Good, too) and MSI #3 (Not so good).

But if you ask your friend for personal assistance, it is better than asking some anonymous bozo like me for an opinion. You should take your friend to dinner.

I've personally had good fortune with both Abit and MSI boards. The MSI was the 865PE Neo2-FISR. It is very well marked, which is a big plus if this is your first time putting a pc together. Both boards OC well, the MSI has some pre-done OC settings if you're into that. The tests I've seen have been favorable to MSI. However, with all the big name manufacturers (Abit, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, DFI) you'll find people that like them and people that hate them.
Quick socket & chipset tutorial:
Athlon XP= Socket A
Chipsets= nForce2 (best), VIAKT880 (also very good), VIA600,400,333,266 (not as good, worse from left to right), SiS (generally not as good, but cheap)

Athlon 64= Socket 754, 940, 939. 939 is newest and will continue, the others are less desirable but have more availability
Chipsets=nForce 150 (OK), nForce 250 (best) Via K8T800 (good)

Pentium 4 Northwood= Socket 478
Chipsets= 875 (best), (865 can be just as good), lower chipsets are not desirable

Pentium 4 Prescott= Socket 478 & LGA775 (aka Socket T)
Chipsets= Some 875 & 865 boards, 925 (newest), 915 (also newest, but both have had problems)

HTH