{What is the downside to AMD processors, I've always been concerned that there were some applications that were InTel sensitive. } With the older AMD processors (Pre-Athlon) this WAS a major concern, but the Athlons have fixed most or all of the problems. You'll notice some perforamance hits with some software, but you'll also see some software function BETTER with the Athlon. They're virtually identical. To reiterate, if you want a dual proc system, go for two P3s or to P4s. If you don't, you'd PROBABLY do best to save a few bucks and get a single Athlon. Note, however, that Athlons require different motherboards than Pentiums do...