What is the difference between the XP and P4 CPUs?
A. Intel’s Pentium IV and AMD’s Athlon XP CPUs are currently the performance CPUs of choice. Athlon XP CPUs are an improved version of the Athlon Thunderbird CPUs. Intel’s Pentium IV CPUs have a much higher clock speed, but they actually are outperformed by the “slower” (in terms of MHz) Athlon XP CPUs and even Pentium III CPUs in many benchmarks, until you get to 2.2 GHz and beyond (where the P4 pulls ahead). The Pentium IVs also cost a lot more. In the long run, Intel’s line will move to only the Pentium IVs, and they will be much better as their clock speeds rise. At this point in time they are not the best choice in my opinion. The Pentium IV motherboard chipsets are improving, and they are now clocked at 2.2 GHz+, which makes them a good, fast choice, but you’ll currently pay much more for the Pentium IV 2.2 GHz+ CPUs than the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ CPUs that perform only slightly slower. The newer “Socket 478” Pentium IVs are out, which will support higher clock speeds than the Sock
