Check out the K6-2: http://www.tomshardware.com/k6-2.html. The new K6 has some 3D extensions which bring it's performance up to the level of a PII of the same clock speed for games (if the game supports the 3DNOW extensions) It looks like AMD did a better job with their 3dnow extensions than intel did with MMX. There is support in directx6, glide & some video card drivers. You'll see the best increase (100%!) in games with direct support, or ones that use a supported 3D engine (direct3d or opengl once the drivers are out) There is a version of quakeII with 3dnow support that gets 57.1 fps on a K6-2 (333/95) while a (much more expensive) pentiumII 350/100 gets 58.7. You won't see much of an increase in older 3D games + the K6-2 is still lacking in raw FPU power. Pricewatch has a K6-2 300 listed at $225. The lowest price on a pentiumII 300 is $247. The PII prices are supposed to drop quite a bit in the next few months, expect AMD to track them. The older K6 chips should get really cheap (in much the same way as non-MMX chips) You may want to consider a K6 200 with a good 3D card. As John stated, a good 3D card will make a big difference with any CPU. Kerry John Chin wrote: > K-6 also has MMX; moreover, it has twice the cache > of the Intel Pentium MMX. However, the K-6's FPU > (on-board math coprocessor) is not nearly as fast as > the Intel MMX (important for games). But you get more > than for the buck with AMD. > > Therefore, as a gamer, you should go Intel CPUs (plus, > when game developers code they usually use Intels). > I recommend you get a Pentium II when the prices > drop in July. Decent LX chipset motherboards are > hitting the $100 level (wholesale) so the CPU price > is the main difference (switchover to DIMMs is not > bad since the prices per MB are same as SIMMs, > except for the PC-100 compliant -- i.e. BX-chipset, > Front Side Bus RAM). The speed boost with the > 1/2 CPU-speed cache onboard the P-II makes a > difference. > > But with games, the 3D performance of your video > subsystem is more important. Adding a Monster 3D-II > board would really boost your game system, and that > upgrade costs more than any Socket 7 CPU. > > Regards, > > John Chin