athlon vs tbird

[Zifnab]

What is the difference between the "athlon XMhz" and the "athlon tbird XMhz" in the cpu database? Is one better than the other?

[hooziewhatsit]

the athlon is an older slot A (cartridge) type chip, with off die L2 cache that runs at a fraction of the processor speed. The newer Thunderbird is a socket A chip, with the L2 cache running at the full processor speed,

so just because of the speed of the cache, the newer thunderbird, and the duron (same as the tbird, just a little less cache) will run faster than the 'classic' athlon.

also, the classic athlon is getting phased out, as most new mobo's are socket A.