in xp, visual styling and extras make performance suck. turn off the shadows and other stuff, and it might help. i personally like amd and would go with them, but it's a personal pref. i suppose. the new p4's with hyperthreading really move though. more ram is always better (for the most part). and realize that you do get what you pay for. if a really fast computer is really cheap, be leary. make sure you get fairly well known brands for stuff because they usually have better warrantees and stuff. i've built my own for the past 5 years and always go with name brand stuff for everything.