K7VTA3 ver. 8.0c -- BIOS says CPU temp is always 35C

I just bought an ECS K7VTA3 v. 8.0C mobo with 1.6 GHz Duron and
9/22/2003 BIOS. I went into the BIOS' PC Health Status screen to
enable the automatic temperature shutdown, but it always shows the CPU
as being at 35C, and this never budges one bit. Yet the BIOS does
report the fan RPM correctly, and Motherboard Monitor seems to show
the actual CPU temperature. I know that Motherboard Monitor is a
great program and can shut down the computer if it gets too hot, but
Windows sometimes locks up, so I'd also like the BIOS' temperature
shutdown to work. Does anyone know if this mobo's BIOS temperature
shutdown operates properly? Its minimum setting is 65C, or more than
i'd like to experiment with.