how good is this Intel P4 3.2 HT LGA 775 processor?

[bistro]

If one would put equivalent AMD and Pentium machines together and played Doom 3, I highly doubt if one will see any naked-eye difference. AMD designed their chips mainly with gamers in mind...Pentium went for the number crunching side of the house. As KeriTechPC mentioned, AMD plays the games slightly better, but its only really obvious when benchmarked. Another "advantage" is that they are less expensive; BUT....they run hotter than Pentiums for the most part (solved by getting a good 3rd party cooler). I've seen this go in cycles...first the Pentiums are the best thing since sliced bread, then two months later the same people are touting AMD's latest Uber-Chip and pooh-poohing the Pentiums. Then two months later, Intel announces the super-warp technology and these same people now go back to the Pentium camp and on and on and on....
IMHO bottom line: If you want to save some bucks and lean more toward gaming, go and get your Athlon. But if you want a workhorse...go for Pentium.

[bball_1523]

If one would put equivalent AMD and Pentium machines together and played Doom 3, I highly doubt if one will see any naked-eye difference. AMD designed their chips mainly with gamers in mind...Pentium went for the number crunching side of the house. As KeriTechPC mentioned, AMD plays the games slightly better, but its only really obvious when benchmarked. Another "advantage" is that they are less expensive; BUT....they run hotter than Pentiums for the most part (solved by getting a good 3rd party cooler). I've seen this go in cycles...first the Pentiums are the best thing since sliced bread, then two months later the same people are touting AMD's latest Uber-Chip and pooh-poohing the Pentiums. Then two months later, Intel announces the super-warp technology and these same people now go back to the Pentium camp and on and on and on....
IMHO bottom line: If you want to save some bucks and lean more toward gaming, go and get your Athlon. But if you want a workhorse...go for Pentium.

that's I hear from some people, but then others totally disregard what you said. They either jump AMD and say it works for everything and benchmarks prove, but I have yet see any solid proof other than a bunch of words written on a forum. I saw some benchmarks of a variety of applications that were tested for intel vs. amd, but that didn't solve my questions because I am looking benchmark tests for audio recording apps, not 3dmark or doom III.

I'm not a hardcore gamer. The only games I'd probably play are Morrowind, the new Elder scrolls coming soon, Sims 2, and Rollercoaster tycoon 3. Occassionaly I'd like to play HL2/counter-strike. With games I'd like good graphics and great speeds, but I don't are for the smallest of details or those benchmarks on all those websites. I am leaning more towards recording and playing my guitar through the computer and I want a processor that will work extremely good with all the RAM, soundcard, videocard that I have and with the money I have. My budget is around $1000-1500.