Before you read any further... Today (Thursday 18th September) AMD gave us an official statement on the Fake CPU Matter which we are pleased to print below!

"AMD has rigorous standards for quality and reliability of its products.
AMD recommends consumers and businesses buy AMD processors only from
authorized distributors and vendors to help ensure that they are purchasing
the highest quality product.

Purchasing AMD products from non-authorized sources carries with it a
degree of risk that the products may have been subjected to tampering and
remarking or are without warranty. Purchasers are encouraged to contact
their regional AMD sales office if there is any question regarding the
authenticity of a product or the reliability of the source."

G.Tizianel/R.McDonald - AMD Europe

And in reference to the Fake CPU used in the photos below...

"I have personally
examined it and can confirm that this CPU has been modified by some as yet
unknown 3rd Party after it has been shipped legitimately from AMD factory.
Trace on CPU Serial# has confirmed that no CPUs bearing this Serial# have
ever shipped from AMD. In addition there is evidence of modification to
laser elements. "

R.McDonald - AMD Europe

The following photos are of a Genuine AMD XP2400+ Cpu, and a fake XP2400+ CPU received on 29th August 2003. The suppliers names will not be revealed under any circumstances (before any of you ask)

The CPU on the left is fake, the right is genuine. This can be identified by the positioning of the text on the black label. On fake CPUs it is higher up towards the edge and isn't as white... on fake cpus the text has a browny/yellow tinge.

On the right - genuine, on the left - fake. Note the difference on the L11 bridges? On the fake, 2 are cut, on the real, only 1 is cut. TC_Overclocker spent the past 15 minutes examining Candjac's guides to the XP Bridges, and from that info we can determine that the fake chip is set to use a 1.7v core voltage as standard... which is NOT an official XP Voltage rating....

Closeup of GENUINE L11 bridge

 

Closeup of FAKE L11 bridge... note the lower bridge isn't a clean cut? It's been done with a circular tipped instrument.

 

Look at the labels.... on the right hand label you can see a lip where one label has been added over another. On the left, there is no lip.

 

Fake set of L3 bridges, but done by someone else other than the person who did the L11 mod. Note how clean the L3 bridge cuts are in comparison to the genuine chip's L3 bridges shown below.... this either means that the cuts on the above chip have been done manually, or some surface cleansing has been done on the fake chip.

See THIS THREAD for further details