  We present the first results from the AGN Multiwavelength Survey of
Early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster (AMUSE-Virgo). This large program
targets 100 early-type galaxies with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on
board the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Multi-band Imaging Photometer on
board the Spitzer Space Telescope, with the aim of providing an unbiased census
of low-level super-massive black hole (SMBH) activity in the local universe.
Here we report on the Chandra observations of the first 16 targets, and combine
them with results from archival data of another, typically more massive, 16
targets. Point-like X-ray emission from a position coincident with the optical
nucleus is detected in 50% of the galaxies (down to our completeness limit of
~4E+38 erg/sec). Two of the X-ray nuclei are hosted by galaxies (VCC1178=N4464
and VCC1297=N4486B) with absolute B magnitudes fainter than -18, where nuclear
star clusters are known to become increasingly common. After carefully
accounting for possible contamination from low mass X-ray binaries, we argue
that the detected nuclear X-ray sources are most likely powered by low-level
accretion on to a SMBH, with a <11% chance contamination in VCC1178, where a
star cluster is barely resolvable in archival Hubble Space Telescope images.
Based on black hole mass estimates from the global properties of the host
galaxies, all the detected nuclei are highly sub-Eddington, with luminosities
in the range -8.4<log(L_0.3-10keV/L_Edd)<-5.9. The incidence of nuclear X-ray
activity increases with the stellar mass M_star of the host galaxy: only
between 3-44% of the galaxies with M_star<1E+10 M_Sun harbor an X-ray active
SMBH. The fraction rises to between 49-87% in galaxies with stellar mass above
1E+10 M_Sun (at the 95% confidence level).
