Long the chip of choice for enthusiasts on a budget, AMD's Athlon XP now finds itself in a battle to maintain its status over Intel's faster-running Pentium 4, according to vendors of high-performance desktop PCs.
Last year at this time nearly 98 percent of all Falcon Northwest PCs shipped with an Athlon CPU, says Bradd Berdelmann, Falcon's general manager. The company specializes in high-performance computers.
But this year, the P4 has battled its way back into the hearts of many enthusiasts, he says. Falcon expects its customers to order about 50 percent AMD and 50 percent Intel systems this holiday season.
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