I'm with the hamster (N6NU) and the joker (Hermskii). if you two are behind the curve, then I'm way behind. my machine is a 1 GHz Pentium 3 and it was upgraded about a year ago. the premium you'd pay for the top of the line chip (like a 3 GHz P4 or the new AMD Athlon 64) just isn't good value to me. take the 1 GHz P3 I have now. back when it first came out, it would set you back several hundred U.S. dollars. when I got it late last year, it was just over a hundred. though before the upgrade I had to settle for a slower machine (400 MHz Celeron), but it was plenty fast for me at the time. aside from the price premium, I would not be inclined to go for the first versions of anything. I prefer to have them work out the bugs, then I'll decide if I really have the need for it. is there a compelling reason to go for 3 GHz P4? if you're just using your computer for office apps, some internet stuff, and some gaming, I'd say a 3 GHz processor is an overkill.
NVIDIA has come a long way with regards to Athlon chipsets. I've heard many good things about their nForce2 Athlon chipsets. if I were to build a computer today (though in reality I wouldn't, more on that later), it'd be an Athlon XP 2500+ or so on the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe.
why I wouldn't build a computer today. a fairly big motherboard change is coming soon. AGP is to be replaced by PCI Express, the processor socket is changing (for both AMD and Intel), DDR may be going out in favor of DDR-II, and on top of that, the motherboard form factor may be changing too (and that means a new case is needed). I'm not saying you shouldn't get a new computer now. you definitely should get a new one if the one you have now cannot handle what you want to do well enough for you.
as for the 64-bit stuff, it's now just barely touching the high end and not in the mainstream yet. at this point, I'd say it depends on what the software support will be and what Intel will do. I heard that microsoft will do two 64-bit versions of windows and also Intel will do another 64-bit architechture in addition to the Itanium they already have. but those are just sayings seen on the web and like Kotori would say "the future is not yet decided" (a recurring quote from "X").
-clemmentine ( everlasting_lórien / AngelPriestessKayura / Tenku_no_Touma / Korin_no_Seiji / Tempest_Cloud_Arashi )
_________________ One day, one night, one moment,
My dreams could be, tomorrow.
One step, one fall, one falter,
East or west, over earth or by ocean.
One way to be my journey,
This way could be my book of days.
-- from "Book of Days" by Enya
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