AMD or Intel?

[Mahaon]

My old system (AMD Athlon XP 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ with a crappy ECS mobo) is close to dying so time to build a new system. I haven't been following motherboard's and processors very much but I know a little bit more about what AMD is doing than Intel though. Intel systems seem more expensive.

Should I go with an Intel or an AMD system? Which has the most flexibility and overclocking potential?

In terms of price, I am not on a real budget but don't want to go crazy. I want to balance cost with performance and future expandability. If I were to go with an AMD system, I think it would be some AMD X2 processor in the 5000+ range as a guide to what I think I would be looking at.

Any suggestions for mobo/CPU combo's as well as any links to comparison articles would be welcomed.

[Red Squirrel]

Right now Intel is ahead of the game, but I still personally like AMD better, I find their processors perform better per MHz. AMD is also a bit cheaper right now, but that changes a lot.

[ionus]

intel is a decent buy for 1 good reason it has basically set a universal socket for all current some legacy and all new processors for their motherboards the 775 socket. though AMD have more horsepower under the hood they alternate back and forth between two socket styles the am2 and am2+. more variety from the intel CPU's as u get to choose from the families of pentium D, celeron, dual core, core 2 duo, quad core, xeon, corei7, core 2 duo extreme, and almost any new cpu they plan on throwing at us. all having there own pro's and con's.
but as stated AMD cpu's except when compared to quad cores don't have much of a fight vs intel cpus in terms of speed, multitasking and multithreading.
regardless of choice both manufacturers do quality work.

[reckbates]

AMD is best for gaming as well as application i found better performance than Intel but i know Intel beats in some gaming but under budget AMD is truly a savior

[lopis]

I use iCore 5 on my laptop and PC. It's colder and quicker than AMD with same price.