"make your decision what application you are going to use mostly. It is very difficult if you want to do so many things at the same time and you consider each factors.
my opinion is if "gaming", go for a64.
for others, especially "photo editing" go for p4."
The only real advantage that the P4 has is with video encoding, as it is a boring task for the cpu and the higher clock help at that. But for photo editing, well, it doesnt really matter because depending of which filter you choose to apply or what processing you do, you will favor the P4 in some and the AMD in others.
So I do video encoding, photo editing, video editing, office task, internet stuff, burning, crunching, gaming, watching movies and listening to music with my PC. And for me, it wasnt difficult at all to decide. And I dont fell my A64 underpowered in Intel playground nor I'm sure I wouldnt have felt an Intel system underpowered in AMD territories..
"p.s if gaming + photo editing is a must, other who can scrath their brain will help you. or if u have no room to keep money, build 2 systems. one for p4 and one for amd. I know someone who has at least 8 pcs for him alone. if u can afford, why not. 😀 "
I went with AMD 64 because, at the end, that was the best performance/price ratio I could find for any of the taks I perform... My only benchmark data that matter to me is how much money I still have in my pocket...
-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!