That computer Skuzzy posted uses the i845D chipset, which is means it uses DDR ram. That system does not suffer the huge performance hit I described earlier. That's definately not a refurb though, since i845D has only been out less than a month.
My opinion on Dell is kind of odd. I wouldn't own one personally, even if you gave it to me. I'm VERY particular about what goes into my system. Performance and quality are the most important things to me. I've built both AMD and Intel systems in the past, both can be made equally stable if you know what you are doing. (I.E. have first-hand experience or help in setting the system up.) I've yet to see a single name-brand PC that meets all of the criteria that I follow when building a system. (I.E. Crucial or other high quality ram, IBM or WD hard drive, Asus, MSI, or Epox motherboard, 300W approved powersupply, etc.)
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Onto the never ending Intel vs AMD debate...
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Fact: Intel based systems, meaning Intel CPU with Intel chipset motherboard, are a little bit easier to setup. This is largely due to the fact that Microsoft in the past has bundled Intel chipset drivers into Windows. VIA did not enjoy this luxury until Windows XP. This means you MUST install the VIA drivers right after Windows. If you don't do this the system will not be 100% stable, and unfortuantely many people forget to do this very simple step when building a system.
Fact: AMD based systems perform better than equally priced Intel based systems. (I.E bang for the buck ratio) There isn't much else to say here. Numerous benchmarking sites are on the web that can prove this. (anandtech, tomshardware, aceshardware, hardocp, etc, etc, etc.)
Fact: AMD systems require top quality motherboards, power supplies, heatsinks, and ram.
Fact: (and an often overlooked one) Both Intel and AMD supporting chipsets have known bugs and limitations. VIA chipsets for both Intel and AMD processors in the past had many minor, and some not-so-minor, issues. Intel chipsets have also had their fair share of bugs. Here's a list of issues with chipsets for both AMD and Intel that I can think of right off-hand: (Note: If you don't know what I mean by southbridge and northbridge, I describe their function in my chipset articles that I posted about a month or two ago.)
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Intel i850: Does not support any other AGP voltage signaling other than 1.5V. Using a 3.3V AGP card will destroy the Northbridge, leaving you with a dead motherboard. This chipset also has a known PCI bus latency issue that Intel lists on the errata sheet. There is no fix, Intel just limits PCI bandwidth to 80- 90 MB/sec to prevent the problem. A side effect of this is reduced hard drive performance.
Intel i845 & possibly i845D: Suffers from both issues listed above for i850.
Intel i820: Anyone who remembers the MTH (memory translater hub) issue with this chipset can also remember just how much this cost Intel to resolve the problem. (They sent Rambus RDRAM to everyone who bought these boards.)
Intel i815: Limited to 512 MB of RAM.
AMD 750 (Irongate): Limited to AGP 1x as the result of a timing issue with nVidia GeForce cards.
AMD 760MPX: (Specifically the 766 southbridge) Possible USB 1.1 issues, although this hasn't been confirmed as this chipset is brand new. (This is a new chipset supporting Dual Athlon XP/MP processors, and not the older 760 chipset.)
VIA: Who doesn't remember the infamous 686B southbridge? The problem is, in fact, the same as the i850 and i845 suffer from. That is a PCI bus issue that caused possible data corruption if too much bandwidth was used. VIA issued a patch that corrected the problem, and that patch was later incorporated into the newer 4 in 1 drivers. There is also a 3rd party patch that changes PCI bus timings to try to resolve some lingering latency issues that result in popping and crackling sound from Soundblaster Live series soundcards.
VIA KT133A and previous chipsets: It's very difficult to get AGP 4x working correctly on some motherboards using these chipsets.
Nvidia nForce 420: Very picky on the quality of ram used.
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Skuzzy, I'd like to know specifically what chipsets you've used on your AMD systems? I've never had any problems with the AMD systems I've built once they've been completed to my satisfaction. Have you tried the VIA KT266a and nVidia nForce yet? I've had very good luck with both of these, specifically on the Asus A7V266-E and MSI K7N420-PRO respectively.
