Nothing wrong with AMD.
Been using their CPU's exclusively for 7 years and I've yet to have one fail or be defective.
Getting a decent CPU/Mobo/RAM/Video combo for under $350 could be tricky...I'll see what I can dig up.
I just recently upgraded from a single core cpu to dual core, and it's made a dramatic difference. Basically all a dual core cpu is, is a single chip with two processors inside it. They have their own L1 & L2 caches (at least with AMD...Not sure about how Intel's caches and memory interface works...).
I'll see what I can do about the rest...
-Elo