useing max is there anything special to exporting with biped animation as aposed to exporting with bones animations? if not is there some place i can find a good tutorial for rigging and animateing bones with 3dstudio max?
If you use biped animation, you will have to find a way to bake that animation to bone based animation. Biped animation is a max specific feature, and isn't really usable outside of max (either in Unity, or any other app for that matter) unless you bake it first. I don't know if that is even possible.
Your best approach would be to use bone based animation, with traditional FK (forward kinematic) rigging and animation techniques.
If you would like to use IK, you may inside of max, but you will need to bake it to FK prior to export.
Gnomon workshop has some great Maya tutorials, but you would have to translate that into Max on your own, and they can be pricey.
For advanced Rigging, also in Maya, but a general approach The Art of Rigging is a great in depth overview.
Otherwise for free stuff, just use google. This is the first result, and it looks decent Skinning and Animation in Max