The Pentium 4 570J is a solid choice for those who simply don't care about gaming, graphics, or running older programs with lots of x87 floating-point math. Right now, though, AMD's Athlon 64 processors offer more balanced overall performance with fewer obvious weaknesses, less heat production, and more frugal power consumption. The Athlon 64 also has a couple of key technology advantages still, including AMD's 64-bit extensions. The Pentium 4 won't gain similar capabilities, in the form of Intel's EM64T extensions, until the P4 600 series debuts early next year