Quote - Most appear to say Intel Core 2 Duo is better at the moment, other say Athlon 64 x2.
I'm not so interested in cpu speed, I want what's best to rendering.
If my RAM is the same, will there be a difference between Intel and AMD as far as rendering goes?

Its pretty simple:

AMD 64 for single core. Intel duo/quadro for multi core. One of the new AMD X2 if you want cheaper multi cores. For P6 and below, fast single core is better then multi core. For P7 (and future versions) multi cores rule, even if they are a lower GHz.

And you most certainly, definitely wanna be interested in CPU speed. Like svdl said, AMD or Intel make no difference to rendering quality. However the speed and various models make a huge difference to render speed, and the speed affects your render quality in that you can turn on more stuff in the render options and still get a fast enough render.