I dunno if it's out there, but AMD is better than Intel for the money, if they have somethign comparable to the Duo Core.  AMD usually is 40% cheaper for the power has been my experience.  

For instance, when I bought my computer 5 years ago, I got an AMD "Quadraspeed" or some such brand name.  I can still run most software out there without bogging down the processor.  RAM on the other hand, that I have problems, so I agree, go RAM crazy if you can.

But that's me.

mdb