Hi all,
I'm screwing together a low-bugdet system and wondering whether to buy an AMD or Intel CPU. My options would be

Intel Celeron D 320 (2,4 GHz)
on a VIA PT880-chipset mainboard (http://www.asrock.com/product/product_p4v88.htm)
or
AMD Sempron 2400+
on VIA KT880-chipset (http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7upgrade880.htm)

The mainboards cost each about 35 € and both offer DualDDR. Since many benchmarks in the web force their tests on 3D-performace they don't deliver me the info I need to decide which one to choose for linux - stability and compatibility would speek for Intel I guess. And the Intel-platform can be upgraded up to Pentium 3,2GHz (Sock. 478) - which I suppose performs better than anything on Socket A - Am I right?

Would be great if you post here what speaks for/against the one/other decision.

The sempron is the better buy of the two especially in terms of Linux support. Though I highly recommend non low end cpu/mobo choices. The consumer level amd64 boxes are not that much more expensive. I just got a decent mobo/proc/gpu/ram for $300 for a new workstation I'm building.

Just found this thread which covers the same quiestion:

Which Processor on Linux- AMD or Intel?

AMD is FAR more stable than any intel ever

i have a 2100+ over clocked and it has never froze, ever
even playing games like doom3

my freind has a dual p4 3.2ghz
and his freezes and clocse apps at random all the time

intel is far less atable than amd

About AMD 64-Bit:
Isn't it too early to swich, I mean many things still need to be finished to reach full 64Bit performence in linux. How far is it? Mplayer for example, would it work on a 64 Bit CPU?

About the switching itself - I wanted just to plug my old harddrive with my current system on it and boot - maybe build a new kernel.
But with amd64 I would have to recompile every application - or reinstall linux with a 64Bit-distro.

I'm still openminded about 64bit,
either getting amd64 - but than it would be the latest socket and a gigabyte mainboard - which will be more costy
or
waiting another year or so before going amd64 and buying a low-budget system

64 bit procs support running 32 bit binaries at full speed. The Windows crowd does it with their entire operating system.

I'm also thinking of getting an AMD64 Laptop. I understand the 64 can run 32 stuff. What I'm not sure of is if I use Fedora 3 (64bit) can I use basically any program that works on the 32 Fedora without changes if they don't have a 64 version out yet. I know there may be some exceptions, but will most of the 32 bit stuff, say 90% work off the shelf. I don't want to get in over my head, with modifications to make 32 stuff work on the AMD64 chip.

You can run 32 bit programs fine in a 64 bit OS.

Thanks, sounds great. 32 O.K. on 64.