Can old processors (Pentium) work with new motherboards

Question

I have a few old desktop machines laying around that have fried motherboards, but everything else works. I previously thought you needed to buy a motherboard from that generation in order for it to work, but then I came across a few modern motherboards that claim to support that old processor (6 years old)...so now I'm confused...I thought this wasn't possible.

Old Desktop

ASUS P5GD1 with Pentium 4 530 (90nm) and uses DDR RAM

NEW Motherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3743# Click on the button that says "CPU Support list" it states that it supports the above processor...

Answer 1

It may be a currently produced motherboard, but it's not a modern one - Core i5 processors came out 2 years ago and their second generation refresh came out earlier this year, and we're 6 months from the expected next generation. It uses the G41 Express chipset, released in 2008, which supports PCI Express 1.1, but PCI Express 3 came out in 2010. The processor socket LGA 775 has been superceeded twice.

It will work because it is a motherboard for that generation - it happens that that generation lasted a long time (Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo), but it is quite a while since Core 2 Duo was state of the art.

Answer 2

If the motherboard manufacturer says that it supports it, then you should be fine. They don't just put things there.