Labs

This is one of the latest 'Barton-style' AMD Athlon XP processors, and has a whopping 512K of Level 2 cache and a 333MHz front-side bus. These improvements to the spec really pay off: this processor offers blistering performance. The 3.06GHz Pentium 4 has a slight edge in our 2D office work test and 3D games benchmark - but the Athlon XP is still fast enough to take anything, including the latest games, in its stride. And given that it costs two-thirds the price of the Pentium 4, it's easy to see why the 3000+ gets our thumbs-up.