Which One Is The Better/more Powerful Chip?

I have a laptop at the moment that has an Athlon 2000xp chip.Ive been offered a pentium 4 1.7 laptop and dont know which is most powerful.
Anybody help? :(

Athlon XP 2000 is the better chip.

the pentium 4 might do better in certain programs if they're optimized to use features that are specific to pentium 4 (programs that use SSE 2). but i'd guess that the two chips are pretty comparable to each other. you prolly wouldn't see a huge difference either way.

jay973,this is way off topic. I tried to pm you to ty for your pm to me. The board won't let cause your account is'nt verified or something. Thanks again. :)

I like the way Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie sums up buying RAM, "buy a lot of ram. Think of the highest number you can think of..." (Some chatter follows), "and then multiply that number by eight."
Any sort of chip, RAM, Video, Sound, CPU, will perform better with nice high numbers following it.
Say you have a Pentium II, well a Pentium IV should perform scads better.
And with AMD, the system is easier, because AMD uses numbers that COMPARE its chip to a Pentium.
An AMD 2000+ is saying that it performs like that specific Pentium chiparooni.
So do this. Visit a site that sells all the AMD chips, and look for the highest number you can find. (I think its an AMD 4000 or so by now).
Notice the low, low price? That chip in Pentium form would cost say, couple of thousand maybe...

the amd rating system does not compare it to the equivelant pentium system, it compares it to what speed the previous amd chips would need to be to get the same performance. :)

also, just stick with the amd. :)

Id get the cheaper one. Though the AMD would be slightly faster in this comparision (assuming all other thigs equal) the difference isn't that apperent.

If I had lots of money would would get the latest pentium. Certain pentiums are much better for laptops becuase they use less power, weigh less and create less heat but they cost more...but in the end who cares? I only type stuff on my laptop and surf the net. This topic is too general for a proper answer.

Which laptop to choose depends not only on the chip but also on the other things each laptop offers like how much ram it can hold, how much ram it already has, drives and ports available on the laptop etc.
Check these things before making the choice

All things optimal the 2000+ is far superier to any of the 'Willamette' pentium 4's. Even the high end 2.0ghz willamette rates an average of 9 benchmark points behind the amd 2000+. You can find information and comparisons on these thing on Tom's Hardware tables such as this. Good site, check it out.