Folks, the Atom processor isn't intended to be placed in gamer boxes or desktops because it is much slower than the Core 2 or AMD64 processors. Its true role is to power low cost laptops and special purpose systems like HTPC, NAS, firewalls, etc. which do not have significant ratio of number-crunching floating point ops.
They have a low-power requirement which should allow for huge improvement in battery times for mobile units. They are faster than equivalent speed Celeron chips as well, tho I haven't benchmarked the two yet. My Toshiba Satellite has the 1.6 GHz Celeron and my new HTPC box has the Intel D945GCLF2 dual-core Atom 330 CPU running at 1.6 GHz onboard.
The Atom CPU runs cool (40C) and the processor has only a heatsink, while the NB chip has a H/S with a fan. I have installed MythDora (Fedora 10 plus MythTV 0.21) onto a 4GB SSD (266MHz CF + Syba SATA2CF adapter). The memory is a 2GB Crucial DDR2 667Mhz stick. Add a DVDROM, an Edimax USB wifi dongle and a case w/270W P/S and I have a box costing about $240. I can send video (LiveTV or pre-recorded) from the MythTV backend box, across wireless to this frontend box and play it on a VGA monitor just fine Eventually, the frontend Atom box will sit under/behind the TV in the den and run cool and quiet.
The only problem I have, is the S-Video output does not work. Not with the current Intel video driver in the latest MythDora 10.21. And, my old JVC TV has only S-Video input. But, I have heard Intel has a fix for S-Video o/p which will be available to the field "RSN". But, if I break down and buy a new LCD TV, then S-Video will not be an issue as most new LCD TVs have the VGA PC input plug (and HDMI, and DVI, and composite).
I do not know if this 945G graphics chipset will power 1080p HD or not. That may become a problem if it doesn't.