IDE is ATA33, 66, 100, 133 and uses the old wide thin ribbon cables
SATA is not interchangeable with ATA. IDE & ATA usually are the same thing when looking at hard drives, just different companys post different details.
SATA starts at 150/1.5 gig transfer rate and goes to SATA-II which is 300 / or 3.0 gig trnafer rate...
SATA/SATA-II has a small thick cable and small L shaped connectors
you can swap data back and forth though..just difference in interface/speeds
Post your MotherBoard Model # and we can tell you if you can use SATA drives or not, it is the new wave of interfaces, lots faster and some MB's dont even come with IDE slots any more.....
hope this helps