ASUS M3A motherboard - hang on reboot after install

[DougTheImpaler]

This isn't something super-pressing as I own a Mac, but it's something I'd like to get working. Specs first:

Athlon X2 5800+ (3GHz, 512k cache x2)
ASUS M3A motherboard (AMD 770 chipset, SB600 southbridge)
250GB Hitatchi SATA hard drive
16x IDE DVD-RW
Radeon 3850 video card
Attansic/Atherose L1 Gig-E
ALC 883 audio codec

I can install with two distros so far: XxX Leopard 10.5.6 and iPC with PPF5. Both boot and install if I have the motherboard's SATA set to AHCI, which it is anyway for my Vista install on a separate hard drive which I'm actually unplugging while I try to install this, so as for it to not be in the way.

I can boot, install, it panics on reboot but the reset button reboots, and it starts to load, and then it hangs. I tried all of the following boot arguments:

-x -v
-f -x -v
-f -v

and it sticks in the same place - spotlight is starting up and it complains that in the /.Spotlight-V100 directory some file is missing (which is normal on first boot, I imagine).

iDeneb will not install at all - always waiting for root device, regardless of AHCI/IDE emulation setting.

Installing to the hard drive in a USB enclosure always fails - stil waiting for root device (something about iPhone storage, presumably my USB enclosure is misidentified).

I've done all kinds of installs in terms of drivers - always installing SB600 support, but I've tried skipping video, LAN, and audio to no avail. My problem with installing is that I don't know what some of the fixes on the DVDs do - one of them might fix it but I just don't know.

I feel like I've done a fair amount of troubleshooting on my own, so I'm turning to the experts. I hope I've given enough info that if I'm missing something obvious it can be spotted. Thanks in advance.