Building a machine

[kandrathe]

Now one must consider chipset as well as mobo manufacturer. I have the NVidia2 chipset on mine, but I've read good things about VIA as well.

If you think I sound like I'm a bit Intel-centric at this point, you're probably right. I really don't feel that there is enough of a price spread between the mid-range chips from Intel and AMD to warrant going to the AMD. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against AMD. They made the best chips for the 386, and their 486 chips were just as good as the Intel. But, I see some uncomfortable, glitchy stuff going on with the current AMD chips (nothing that most people will likely ever see), and the AMD chips dissipate a lot more heat than the Intel, which is something that WILL become an issue for folks who tend to hang on to their 'puters for 3+ years.

I consider these peers (2.8Ghz will outperform +3200 in some test, but the 3+ Ghz Intel will consistently outperform.)
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ -- $209
Intel Pentium 4 3.06 w/ Hyper Threading -- $228

But then, why not
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ -- $211

That depends on the core more than the manufacturer, and a good CPU heatsink will cure many ills. Intel has a few core models that are rather hot. My AMD "Barton" runs at 92F at idle (hotter than I do), and climbs to 102F under CPU load test.