Re: I'd be happy with mere performance equivalence as long as power consumption is significantly lower.
Conroe is a 65W part. You don't really need to go lower than this on the desktop unless you are looking for a very small form factor design. Meanwhile, the Athlon FX-60 that they tested and overclocked to 2.8GHz is a >100W part. Even when you take into account that AMD's rated TDP includes instantaneous power spikes and reset it to more of a real world measurement, it's probably still close to 100W, making Conroe a 10-40% better performer at lower power dissipation. Have your cake and eat it, too.