That is not true. The Athlon 64 3200+ will beat the P4 3ghz Prescott
in most benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2065&p=1


Don't listen to this guy. He spouts a few benchmarks and ignores all the
contradicting benchmarks. Plus he seems very determined to bash Intel for
some odd reason. The truth is, those two processors are pretty well
matched, performance wise. You won't need 64 bit hardware for a few years
yet. Either processor would work great, but don't believe anyone who tells
you that the Athlon 64 will beat the P4 in most benchmarks. That's like
taking (car A tops out at 210 MPH on most tracks while car B can only do 205
on most of them, but will do 230 on some of them) and interpreting that as
(car A is faster on most tracks). It is a gross exaggeration. Anyone with
half a brain will be happy with either of them. -Dave