The invention relates to a catalyst Au / MnOx-CeO2 used for preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide and a preparation method thereof. Au serves as an active component, compound oxide MnOx-CeO2 serves as a carrier, the mass ratio of the compound oxide and Au is 100:0.5-5.0, the contents of compound oxide MnOx and compound oxide CeO2 are based on Ce / Mn mole ratio of 1:1. Cerous nitrate, manganese acetate and chloroauric acid are taken as raw materials to prepare MnOx-CeO2 compound oxide carrier; after the carrier is dispersed by ultrasound, the precipitation product obtained by taking chloroauric acid as the raw material and sodium hydroxide as a precipitator is roasted to obtain Au / MnOx-CeO2 compound oxide load gold catalyst. By introducing ultrasound assisting dispersion technology, the active component is evenly dispersed on the surface of the carrier in the deposition-precipitation process, thus enrichment phenomenon of Au particles in deposition and precipitation is avoided when using the traditional deposition-precipitation method to prepare the catalyst, the sintering agglomeration of the Au particles is unlikely to happen when roasting, thus greatly improving PROX catalytic activity and thermostability and better satisfying the requirement of reducing the CO concentration to below 10ppm in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs).