Ghostwolf,

A P4 @ 3.0 is roughly 1/2 slower than an X2 @ 2.4-2.6 theres abouts. (I tested a northwood 3.2 and it got like 298 pts on cinebench).

I would look at a C2D system for an upgrade is performance is getting you down.

With a dual core my render time is roughly 1.86 times faster.

Also, it seems that even if you have dual core set your renderer to 4 threads even if you don't have 4 cores.  Anyone else have similiar findings?  2-4 threads that is.

EDIT: Anyone have a python script to report render times?  That would be super helpful.