Actually in my country, when you go to a store to buy a computer they absolutly discourage the AMDs. This has some reasons, first the credit intel gives to the best reseller (sell more intels the better), and that people who don't know nothing about computers can be fooled easily to buy a more expensive intel over a cheap AMD. That has an advantage specially to those who earns a comission for selling (a more expensive machine, more profit for you)
In the year 2000 I went to a computer store and the dialog was like this:
-"I recommend you the P3 600Mhz system, with 256MB SDram, and a intel motherboard..."
-"What about that new eh, AML, AMT, AMF..."
-"You mean AMD?"
-"yeah, right, AMD... do you sell that?"
-"Well, to be honest we offer a 750Mhz AMD Athlon PC, but we don't sell it, LOL. its not as good as the intel PC, I personally recommend the P3, intel is intel you know..."
-"Yeah but... its a 750Mhz "Athlon" or whatever, while the P3 system is only 600Mhz and costs 300$ more..."
-"Yeah, but despite the speed rates in Mhz, the P3 system is much better in performance. also it comes with an intel motherboard, while the AMD comes with a gigabyte motherboard that to be honest, we never sold nothing from this manufacturer before**, moreover, I can tell you its like a low end PC..."
-"oh, you are talking in terms I barely understand, but you mean the intel is worth every penny?"
-"exactly, I confess its more expensive but you won't regret it, you'll getting a much better system overall"
**Gigabyte brand was entering our local market in year 1999~2000 or so, the mobo offered was actually my first AMD system, the GA 71-XE, AGP 2x, SLOT-A. The P3 he offered to me was slot1. When people first heard about the brand name "gigabyte" they run away