Well, the first thing you'd need is a motherboard that supports off-spec bus speeds like 112mHz for starters.

The only way to overclock your P3-500 is to change the bus speed, since its multiplier is locked at 5x. Right now you are running 5x multiplier and 100mHz bus speed for 500mHz (5 x 100). If your motherboard has 112mHz bus speed, you can up your CPU speed to 560mHz (5 x 112).

With very good cooling and higher voltage, some people have actually succeeded in bringing their P3-500 to 666mHz (5 x 133). Devilishly fast LOL..

There are two things you can do.

1) Increase your CPU's voltage to get a better signal-to-noise ratio. Usually 0.1v or 0.2v will do it.

2) Get a bigger heatsink. All the case fans in the world are useless if the heatsink can't get the heat off the CPU and into the case air. =)

(grin) It's not really that complex so don't feel afraid to try. Changing bus speed simply entails setting some jumpers on motherboards that offer them. On the Asus motherboards I used like the P2B, there are jumpers you can set to select various bus speeds such as 66mHz, 75mHz, 83mHz, 100mHz, etc.

On some motherboards like the Abit BX6 Revision 2, it's even easier-- You set both the bus speed and CPU voltage through the BIOS.

If you are looking to upgrade your motherboard, always insist that it must have features that allow you to change bus speed and voltage. =)