SO, IF I BUY A ATHLON XP 1600+ (RUNNING AT 1.4 GIGAHERTZ) WILL IT BE FASTER THAN MY NORMAL ATHLON 1.4 GIGAHERTZ PROCESSOR?
Overall, yes. Even though the Athlon XP processor is running at the same clock as the normal Athlon, the new Athlon XP has over 70 new instructions to get the job done quicker. Also the XP processor has new “Pre-instruction Cache” on chip. A way to look at this “Pre-instruction Cache” is imagine working on your car. You pop open the hood and figure you need a wrench, so you go to the garage and get a wrench. You finish what you need to do, and find out now you need a screwdriver. So you walk back to the garage and grab a screwdriver. As you can see this takes a lot of time. This is how the old Athlon does its job. Now the XP processor, pops open the hood of the car, and goes to the garage and grabs the whole toolbox, and works on the car.
