THE LAST TIME we checked in on the value processor market, AMD had just released its Duron 1GHz processor, beating Intel to the symbolic 1GHz mark yet again. Since then, Intel has passed the 2GHz mark with its high-end Pentium 4 chip, and the company has quietly made available 1.0 and 1.1GHz versions of its Celeron value processor. AMD counters today with the release of its 1.1GHz Duron processor, which recaptures clock speed parity in the value market for AMD.

Performance-wise, the Celeron certainly needed the clock speed boost to bring it up to par. The 1GHz Duron absolutely crushed the 900MHz Celeron in our last round of tests. Let's dive into the strange world of 1.1GHz value processors and see how the performance picture looks today.