But the core2duo's are much better for your money than AMD's X2's. If you look at my spec i would have gone for an AMD build until i read here:

Tom's Hardware Guide Processors: CPU Charts 2006

yes, I can see that. My budget is very limited though.... Im sure amd is going to come out with something that will blow the core2duo away, and the best part about my motherboard is it has the socket to support the next amd processor release. Look at how many sockets the amd fx series have , and then look at the sockets for core2duo. It may mean nothing, but I think the number of sockets means something , as far as future releases. But for the sake of a decent comparision , do you have a decent crossfire motherboard and processor combination thats within $300?

I guess not.... at least I havent had any luck. A decent crossfire motherboard can go for 150 bucks and up , and the lowest priced core2duo that Ive seen is around $200. Seems as soon as you buy a processor , it's obsolete. *sigh* I did notice that there is an amd fx processor that goes head to head with a core2duo 6400..... I think. Im still continuing in my research and my hunt..... but man if I had 600 bucks..... I definitely could throw together something awesome.

Thanks for your help guys and gals , I really appreciate this.

I wouldn't worry about your processor going "obsolete."

I have a very nice Pentium D. ^_^;;
I would just get the most powerful processor in your budget, and even if a better processor comes out as the thing is shipping (which there would be news about ahead of time anyway), at least you'll have a powerful one, and it's good enough for a very long time.

Thats the problem with PC Hardware it is always changing, you can never have the most up to date system unless your stinking rich and want to upgrade every week or even day.

well , this is the best I can get on my budget , amd crossfire wise anyway. Just posted here to see if anyone could top what I found. I was pretty surprised today to find a HP computer running vista at the community college. I thought you had to have like.... a really powerful computer to run that.

In any case , Im pretty much being told that my gaming woes will go away with this processor. As for intel , I do know that intel recently bought apple computer and will be using them to take on AMD. The processor race begins :s

Im ordering this thursday then. Ill let you guys know how it goes.

It doesnt have to be really powerful depending on the type of vista, and what features are enabled although lots of RAM helps.