Questions about how multi-threading is handled in games.

[Chaky]

Ok, I have a PC with a QX6800 processor. I bought this computer mainly for graphic arts with 3ds Max, etc. However, I specifically got gaming parts because I am a gamer as well. When I got The Orange Box I was under the impression that it was a multi-threaded game. However, it was only showing on task manager that it was using basically one core, and that my game wasn't running as smoothly as I thought it should be given my build. The same thing happened with the Crysis demo. I had read on their website that Crysis is multi-threaded and is supposed to detect how many cores are on your computer. I was getting major lag in the game even on medium settings with no anti-aliasing. I checked task manager and it was only using half of one core.
I have asked about this on the forums for each game respectively, and have had mixed responses. But I have noticed a number of people telling me that my processor usage was being bottlenecked by my GPU and RAM. This didn't sound right to me for two reasons: I was under the impression that the added cores were supposed to work regardless; and I have an 8800 GTX with 2GB RAM which isn't the best but I hardly think it's inadequate. So, here are my questions: can my processor be "bottlenecked" by my GPU and RAM? Is the task manager an accurate representation of how multi-threading is being utilized? And should I be worried that my brand new gaming comp is already out-of-date even for the first games made to utilize it?
Sorry for the walls of text, I just wanted to explain the situation.
I'd like to note that multi-threading seems to work fine in 3ds Max, as I'm able to get 100% usage easily according to task manager.

[blue_fire]

Eh your pc is fine. 2 cores should be working with orange box, but maybe you have other things running that may clog up your system.

[Backburn]

I have your exact same setup: QX6800, 8800GTX, 2GB Memory, etc.. The games that come with the orange box, like TF2, will load one core and marginally so on the other 3. I can run at full settings with no issues.

Technically, only your GPUs would be bottlenecked by the RAM/CPU combo. However with a quad core and 2GB or more, that wont happen. If you were to get another 8800GTX for SLI you would just need to have 4 1GB memory modules for dual-dual-channel. If you have a single Hard Drive, loading textures from the disk to GPU memory is gonna take a while in the high texture quality games.

Bottom line: Your setup is fine. Play with the game settings, defrag your HDD, or try RAID0 with two identical hard drives for the best performance.