I finally got my stupid VIA Nano (U2300) working, it was as simple as this:

idle=poll
(added to kernel boot param - apparently idle=halt should also work).

With this both Fedora 11, and Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 work. And fedora boots up quicker :)

The idle parameter has a number of values it can take, and they appear to boot the box in different fashions (halt is "cooler", or so I read on a forum - the kernel docs make it look like the mid-range C-states are not used, which is rather bizarre - a sort of all or nothing approach to CPU power management?).

From /usr/src/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt (this includes X86_64 as well):

  idle=   [X86]
      Format: idle=poll, idle=mwait, idle=halt, idle=nomwait
      Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly
      improve the performance of waking up a idle CPU, but
      will use a lot of power and make the system run hot.
      Not recommended.
      idle=mwait: On systems which support MONITOR/MWAIT but
      the kernel chose to not use it because it doesn't save
      as much power as a normal idle loop, use the
      MONITOR/MWAIT idle loop anyways. Performance should be
      the same as idle=poll.
      idle=halt: Halt is forced to be used for CPU idle.
      In such case C2/C3 won't be used again.
      idle=nomwait: Disable mwait for CPU C-states

Needless to say, I'll stay with idle=poll. Apparently this is need for all Linux kernels 2.6.24 and above.

Board found here (and elsewhere, probably):

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/nf76_n1gl_lf