Skuzzy?

[Rutilant]

Yes, i whine to you a lot, but... what would a P4 2.6 FSB800 w/ HT compare to Athlon-wise?

[Skuzzy]

I really have no idea Rut.  I am not into comparing AMD and Intel.  I use Intel for reasons not related to the CPU's or their related performance.  In my opinion, both are fine CPU's.
I have just found the Intel support chips to, historically, be more solid than the AMD counterparts.  I know, I know, the NForce2 chips are going to be claimed to be just as solid, but I still see issues with them I do not see with Intel support chips.
None are perfect.  All have flaws.
It ends up being what you are comfortable with as the flaws are concerned.

I am one of these, stability comes first and performance is secondary users.  I am really very picky about my systems.

[bloom25]

Given my experence with both of them, I'd probably say an Athlon XP 2700+ to 2800+ overall.  It's hard to directly compare Athlons and P4s, they each have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other.  The P4 is very good for media encoding.  The Athlons are very good for general office and engineering/scientific apps.  In gaming they are about equal overall.  The graphics card is your primary limiting factor when it comes to gaming given sufficient CPU power.