Seph3d: The loading time difference there is quite possibly due to the hard disk. For a fair test they should be the same; but the P4 disk is SCSI (faster) and smaller (faster) than the Athlon's.
And also the RAM! If the scene involves calculating 200MB of associated data, or something, the P4 gonna do that in RAM while the Athlon's swapping...
In impartial benchmarks (I tend to go by PC Plus and Toms Hardware) the *only* things P4's have proved faster in is running programs designed specifically for the P4. That's all, and I'd hardly call that an achievement...
And yes, the PC Plus benchmarks are carried out on real world user tasks: gaming, 3d rendering, database searching, audio/video compression/decompression...and of course, they try to use as near-as-possible identical hardware to make it fair.
The *only* valid reason to buy a P4 would be a) if you did a LOT of stuff which involved a program heavily optimised ONLY for the P4. I don't think anyone does, though... or b) For it's better thermal protection, if you can't wait for Athlon mobo's with proper thermal protection to come out. P4 is still better in that sense.
For the rest of us - which is most users! - the Athlon kicks much ass compared to the P4.
[edited] 68 2002-01-02 19:26