dood
a pentium 4 2.8 ghz runs at 2800mhz
a amd athlon xp 2800+ runs at 2083mhz
yet it performs on par with a p4 2.8
and the amd does with with a mhz deficieny of 717mhz
now u dont need to be a PhD in nuclear physics to tell which is a better product and to add icing to the cake amd costs lower than a pentium 4
frankly speaking U DONT NEED A 64 BIT PROCESSOR FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS ATLEAST AT HOME USER LEVEL
so i'd advise to go in for a amd athlon xp processor now with a nforce2 based mother board (i'd suggest ASUS A7N8X-E Delux)
if u want a p4 system wait a bit for newer prescott processors and newer boards on the grantsdale chipset
cos the present mobo's dont utilize the entire potential of prescotts
so if u want amd go now
if u want pentium wait a bit
and IF U DO want to go in for a 64 bit processor
go in for a amd athlon 64 or athlon 64 fx51
use VIA KT800 chipset based mobo or nForce3 based board
the choice is urs
but my vote goes to AMD
enjoy