Hey Clyde, gm We have a few different machines around here and thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. I run a P4-1.4 and today I'm getting a new 2.0,, also there are a couple of Durons around here, we have a Mac G4-533 and all are different in what they do. I'm from the old school so personally I prefer the Intel and a lot of people will disagree and say that the P4's are mere power and speed. (I could never figure out why that is a drawback). The one thing I have found is that when I was running Win98 I had a lot of crash problems and therefore switched to W2K which cleared up that problem. I highly suggest going with W2K for a lot of reasons among which is a smoother running machine, better networking, far less fatal crashes. You say you know how to use 98, if so then you know how to use W2K as well. When people start answering your post you will get many different views, some telling you Intel, some telling you to go AMD, some telling you to stay away from both. My suggestion is to do a lot of homework, take your time as the prices you mentioned are going to be for a while. What ever you decide it will be old by the time you get it unpacked, that's the way things are. Good Luck BL