wbmw, I wasn't even talking about the scores. I was merely absorbing the info on all the improvements that were made to the core in addition to the 64 bits and memory controller. I was under the impression that the rest of the core was a regular Athlon. That does not seem to be the case. Were you under the same impression? Maybe you should re-read the article and skip all the benchmark BS just concentrate on the architectural discussion ( to save yourself some time ).