Yes, Opterons are better than Athlons (and the 64 bit counterpart). However, I can't imagine why any one person would need one. It would be overkill.
There really are not any bad boards for opterons... manufactorers dont waste their time and money creating crappy boards for extremely expensive server processosr, where stability is the top concern.
Getting an Opteron would be like getting an Intel Xeon. You dont need it unless you are running a huge server. Like Boxy said, it would be overkill. An Athalon is fine for the end user. But if you want to go for some serious power, get an FX. You would never use an Opteron to it's fullest potential.
