Lots of people, (myself included), recently bought new motherboards because of a statement made by the manufacturer saying that their board would support Prescott. And I'm not so sure the manufacturer isn't correct...
My P4P800 Deluxe User's Guide states (with my *emphasis* added):
"...the FMB2 power design that allows up to... and Intel Prescott CPU when available."
According to the source quoted by Anandtech, the reason why the first generation, socket 478 Prescott's won't be compatible with current chipsets is, "...But due to a mandatory voltage regulation spec change from VIN 1.0 to VIN 1.5, these Socket 478 Prescott processors will not be compatible with any Socket 478 motherboards."
I appears to me -and this is, of course, wild speculation on my part- that Asus is aware of this voltage regulation spec change hence the "FMB2 power design" that allows for support of the first generation socket 478 Prescotts. It is my WAG that Anandtech's source was/is not aware of motherboard manufacturers taking this voltage spec change into account in their currently shipping motherboards.
I just can't see Asus making this type of statement if they aren't relatively sure their motherboards won't do what they say; the consequences and bad press they'd get from their users would be..... well... no need to even say it.
Of course, it is always possible for Intel to completely change planned specs on an unreleased processor, and this news may represent a completely new power spec change that mobo manufacturers just had sprung on them. If that's the case, we're hosed. But it's my arguement that we simply will not know for sure until the Prescott actually ships. Until that time, let's just all keep our fingers crossed, and take all Prescott compatibility information with a grain of salt.
Edit: I guess we could try and ask Asus if they did take the voltage spec change from VIN 1.0 to VIN 1.5 into account, and if that's the reason they did make the statement about supporting the first generation Prescotts. Of course, it would take someone with connections at Asus to actually get a response...