Re: I'll give you multimedia content creation except for that which required 64-bits.
There were absolutely no applications in that review that required 64-bits. Absolutely everything ran perfectly on Core Duo.
Re: The typical notebook has a 2 MB cache 4200 RPM drive. If you are running a VirusScan, you are pounding away at the disk. All of the advice on upgrading laptops in the area of Virus Scan that I've read indicated that getting a faster disk and a larger cache help more than increasing processor speed.
If you are pounding away on your disk, you are receiving a lot of I/O requests, which interrupt your CPU and prevent it from running real work going on simultaneously. If you have dual cores, however, you can have one CPU service interrupts, while the other one computes work, and you absolutely will finish faster.
Re: But getting back to my original question: does the average user using Word and Excel see an improvement?
Why don't you finish reading the review? You seem to be stopping at Winstone and SysMark, while apparently oblivious to the 88% improvement in 3DStudio Max, the 87% improvement in Adobe Premier, the 36% improvement in Adobe Photoshop, the 65% improvement in DVD Shrink, the 64% improvement in WME, the 65% improvement in Quicktime encoding, the 64% improvement in iTunes, and the 12% improvement in Quake IV.
Word and Excel don't need to be accelerated any more than they are now. People don't care if your computer can run Word or Excel faster, because almost any operation is already instantaneous. But if you can rip a DVD in 2:00 as opposed to 3:20, then you are going to find some very interested end-users.
Now how about you show me some 64-bit apps that can sport these kinds of gains. Go ahead and use 10x more memory, if you want, but it won't help.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
