How to Choose a Computer Processor

Intel and AMD are two leading manufacturers of computer processors. Both Intel’s current Pentium series processors (Pentium 4, Pentium D, Extreme Edition) and AMD’s Athlon 64 and 64 X2 series processors are excellent, so let price and chip speed guide you.
Just make sure you get the right CPU for your motherboard because every motherboard is specifically designed for one brand of CPU.
These three processor features have their own distinct advantages:
Dual core: basically embodies the inner viscera of two processors, although there is only one physical chip.
A dual-core processor is much better at multitasking and manipulating more than one running program simultaneously, or two “virtual” processors can work on the same task. It’s very exciting – in a way from computers, of course.
64-bit: A 64-bit processor can input and output much more data (and work with a massive amount of RAM) than a 32-bit processor.
Hyper-Threading: Jeez, what a nickname – just think of a Hyper-Threading processor as being much more efficient and much better at handling multiple programs at the same time than a processor with the same speed without Hyper-Threading. (Who thinks of these names – Marketing Guys?)