A PIII Coppermine is more stable than the new Athlon Thunderbird, and runs at about 98% of the speed for most applications. The "older" Athlon chips are actually SLOWER than the same speed PIIIs because of the L2 cache on the chip. Other versions of the PIII are slower than the equivalent Athlons however, so be careful of what you buy... Also, if anyone's interested, the current issue of Maximum PC magazine lists a "Smackdown" of some of the top current consumer-level video cards (i.e., those priced between $150 and $300). None have a significant effect on rendering in Poser and Bryce, however.