Conclusions
Clearly, it's way too early to call this race, but these preliminary benchmarks from Conroe are very exciting. Intel processors have fallen out of favor with gamers and PC enthusiasts due to relatively weak performance in certain types of games and apps, and Conroe looks like it has the potential to turn that situation around—perhaps in a very big way.

Of course, you'll have to make what you will of these numbers, given the conditions in which we obtained them. Had we the freedom to run a broad spectrum of tests, we might have found the Athlon 64 dual-core system coming out ahead by similar margin in many cases. Who knows? I'm sure some folks will dissect these scores and expound on their likely significance at length, trying to determine what it all means for the future, roughly four months from now, when Conroe-based products are supposed to arrive. Such mental exercises are fun, but rarely enlightening.

I think the message from Intel here is a simple one, coming from people who have not enjoyed being less than fully competitive over the past year or two. That message is: we're finally about to be back in the game.