For $1,000 you can get a lot more computer if you go with an Athlon - Intel may have been afraid that some of its employee's would have gone with Athlon based HP machines, and that the information would have leaked.
I wouldn't imagine that a supplier of an intel contract would be foolish enough to offer a competitors system for that contract, knowing their bid wouldn't succeed, and I wouldn't imagine that intel would pay for such a thing. Quite a fantasy though.
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