I'm seeing the same thing. To keep things simple and ensure it wasn't some issue with my more complex project, I created a new project from the 'ASP.NET AJAX-Enabled Web Site' template. Then I added the following to my web.config file:
<system.web>
<pages>
<controls>
...
<add namespace="Microsoft.Web.Preview.UI.Controls.WebParts" assembly="Microsoft.Web.Preview" tagPrefix="ajax"/>
</controls>
...
</pages>
...
</system.web> Next, I added the following to my Default.aspx page:
<ajax:WebPartManager ID="TheManager" runat="server" />
<ajax:WebPartZone ID="TheZone" runat="server">
<ZoneTemplate>
<asp:Calendar ID="TheCalendar" runat="server"></asp:Calendar>
</ZoneTemplate>
</ajax:WebPartZone> Finally, I added a reference to the Microsoft.Web.Preview.dll to my project.
With the above code, I get the error you're getting. However, if I change the 'ajax' tag prefix to 'asp' and use the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts classes instead, it all works fine. Seems like the AJAX-enabled versions are broken in the beta release. They worked fine in the July CTP.