Got it working. There are CPU options in the BIOS. One labelled something weird, but the help thing said only disable for Windows XP, and it defaulted to disable. I enabled it and some other options became available, and when I saved and exited one more core came online.. Vista installed...
I just did my first from scratch build based around a Core 2 Quad Q6600. I got some programs to watch the core usage, and I do not get ANY action on any cores but core 1. I got Vista Ultimate 32-bit for free from a conference.. (not what I wanted, butI figured why buy when I already have?)...