I've got a pile of parts from several different desktops that i used to run and was wanting to put something together to run linux on. The only components i'm missing are motherboard and cpu as the systems i've aquired all have problematic motherboards or cpus. I was wondering if there were any places out there that anyone knew of that sold older hardware (for example say an amd xp processor or pentium 3/4....hardware of that era) other then ebay?
Swap meets, computer fairs, garage/yard sales. Also might be worth asking your local independent computer store (one that's been around for a while) - you never know what they've got in the back room. I spent months trying to find a replacement KT6 Delta-LSR for an old Athlon system that I wanted to keep alive. Took a long time, and ended up paying nearly as much as a current gen mobo (on eBay, shipped from CA to AU!). +1 for keeping old gear going ... also, don't just look on eBay for mobo+cpu. You might get an entire system (local pick up) cheaper - you can dump what you don't want on the way home.
I'm sure that you have to search for computer 'second-hand' store and there you will find everything you want. Also you can try to find it in other countries and hope that in China you can find everything old and new for you machine.