How can I tell which architecture I have?
 

I guess what my question is: Is there a simple pII = 386, pIII = 486...etc?<--(I know that those are probably not correct, please don't use them as a technical reference) Anyway, the reason I ask, is that I have some old machines that I would like to bring back to life, and would like to know what I am looking at in the "minimum requirements" sections. I tried googled for this info, but couldn't find anything usefull. Thanks.

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You say that they are "old" machines. If they ran windows and are "old" machines, then dollars to doughnuts they are x86 machines.

Thanks for the quick response, but what I am wanting to know, is: If it says that it 486 is minimum, can I run it on a P1, PII, PIII???

Trying very hard to recall from memory, but I think the pentium was an i586, the pentium pro, pII, pIII, pIV were i686's.

286's, 386's and 486's were before Pentium's time

Most chips made by Intel at i386. Using i386 is generally a safe bet for most common desktop PCs.

I hope this helps
--Ian

<EDIT>Damn! Beaten again :)</EDIT>

That's what I needed
 

I think that you are correct, as I had found a site saying "Originally Intel was going to call the Pentium the 80586", but wanted something trademarkable and went with Pentium.

Thank you all.