They AMD in my opinion are by far better cpu's than Pentium, Ive got 2 AMD computers @ home built by myself, a AMD XP +1800 and AMD XP +1900 .... I've got a Pent 4 2.0ghz @ work, both my home built computers outperform the Pent 4 2.0ghz ... I have both my AMD's overclocked, but only slightly ... the +1800 is running @ 1.573 ghz and the +1900 is running @ 1.657 ghz. I used 3 different programs to bench my computers and my work computer (SiSoft Sandra Pro 2002 / PC-Mark 2002 / HDtach 2.61). All 3 show the AMD's out-performing the Pent 4. (actually "HDtach" is just for hard drive benching). The +1800 didnt beat it by much, but considering the Pent 4 is actually 470mhz faster, thats very good, as for my +1900 with DDR333 memory, it beat the Pent 4 considerably .... So to answer your question, yes, AMD's fastest cpu vs. Pentiums fastest cpu, the AMD will win in most categories ... The only thing I notice about the Pent 4's I like is the ones that use RD PC800 ram, it does have very nice memory bandwidth, but with DDR333 & 400 now hitting the market, that will all end soon!