And what model board would this be? I have never heard of any board that does not support PATA hard-drives. I've heard of boards in which you can deactivate IDE channels, but never have I heard of a board that would refuse a PATA hard drive, even after I snooped about online trying to find mention of this (in fact, if it wouldn't allow an IDE hard-drive then it probably wouldn't accept a peripheral drive either (dictated by logic), making that either one of two scenarios: 1) A dead cable or IDE controller, or 2) A case of lethal stupidity by the manufacturer, which is highly unlikely).
Because SATA is a fairly new-ish development it would be counter-productive and stupid to not provide support for PATA drives.
For a manufacturer to allow only SATA hard-drives at this point in time makes about as much sense as a manufacturer only allowing the use of SATA CD/DVD drives with their product.