  Recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB),
particularly when combined with other datasets, have revolutionised our
knowledge of the values of the basic cosmological parameters. Here we summarize
the state of play at the end of 2006, focusing on the combination of CMB
measurements with the power spectrum of galaxy clustering. We compare the
constraints derived from the extant CMB data circa 2005 and the final 2dFGRS
galaxy power spectrum, with the results obtained when the WMAP 1-year data is
replaced by the 3-year measurements (hereafter WMAP1 and WMAP3). Remarkably,
the picture has changed relatively little with the arrival of WMAP3, though
some aspects have been brought into much sharper focus. One notable example of
this is the index of primordial scalar fluctuations, n_s. Prior to WMAP3,
Sanchez et al. (2006) found that the scale invariant value of n_s = 1 was
excluded at the 95% level. With WMAP3, this becomes a 3sigma result, with
implications for models of inflation. We find some disagreement between the
constraints on certain parameters when the 2dFGRS P(k) is replaced by the SDSS
measurement. This suggests that more work is needed to understand the relation
between the clustering of different types of galaxies and the linear
perturbation theory prediction for the power spectrum of matter fluctuations.
