MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of MHz over the past few months. Intel is running at 2.2GHz with its Pentium 4, and AMD is trailing, at least numerically, at 1.67GHz with its Athlon XP 2000+. Although the new P4 and Athlon XP are neck-and-neck in performance, it's been some time since the two were on a level MHz playing field.

The world of processors isn't just about flagship chips, though. Both AMD and Intel have value processors in their respective Duron and Celeron lines. As luck would have it, both of these value chips are available at 1.2GHz. Not only that, but both the Duron and Celeron recently received some internal improvements that ought to improve clock-for-clock performance. That just begs for a performance comparison.

So let's get down to it.

In the blue corner, we have Intel's Celeron 1.2GHz, which now has more in common with the Pentium III "Tualatin" than with its Celeron forebears. In the green corner is AMD's Duron 1.2GHz, featuring the updated Morgan core. In our last few rounds of tests, the "Morgan" Duron has dominated. Can Intel's revisions make the Celeron competitive again? Read on to find out.