I've heard that about the vacuum cleaner causing static but one thing you should definitely not do is put it directly on a fan.. A friend of mine did that and it created a generator burning out the fan header (for the NB of all things). So if you do put it on a fan, unplug it from the board.
I bought an x2 3800+ to replace my 3200+ for better multitasking but most games will run the same
I did not know that about UT2004 or WoW, both are about the only games I play anymore so that's a bonus. Does that still apply if I'm using an audigy 2 zs with the sound in UT2004?