does a good stepping carry weight across dif XP's?

Dear OCers, this is my 1st post so hope its a good one!

Everyone agrees an XP2500+ with a good stepping eg: AQXEA should be a good oc'er. Overclocking an XP2600+ is less popular.
I'm trying to get an unlocked Barton by buying 2nd hand & have a good deal on an XP2600+. The question is:
All Bartons are architechturally the same, so if an XP2500+ AQXEA oc's really well, then shouldn't an XP2600+ with the same stepping do exactly the same?

Or, is the oc potential of a given stepping dependant on the nominal CPU speed? If so why? I assume that the XP2500+ is a more popular choice because of 1) more oc experience 2) a convenient 11x200 oc gives XP3200+ speeds with the cheapest Barton.

My premise for believing the former is that the only difference between AQXEA batches of 2500+'s & 2600+'s is that the XP2600+'s are checked by AMD to run at a higher stock speed.

I appreciate that there will always be variations in performance by batch etc but please let me know the factors or nuances I am missing out on (or if I am missing the point altogther!)
Alternatively someone might just recognise AQXEA 0324WPMW as a good code for an XP2600+!

Thanks everyone, Jibbajab

If it's unlocked, manufacture date may carry more weight as new Bartons are better overclockers than the old ones.

That's why they say that if you have RAM that does up to 220-something FSB, locked Barton may be better than unlocked old one for you.

Here is a quote of mine which I like to toss about

Of any given "type" of processor (The DLT3C Thoroughbred "B being a type, the DUT3C Thoroughbed "A" being a type, the Locked Barton being a type, the Unlocked Barton being a type, etc.) the newer weeks of production will (in general) overclock to higher levels with a lower overvolted Vcore requirement for true 24 hour prime95 torture test stability than older processors of the same "type". The week is displayed on the processor in the form XXXX, after the stepping (JIUHB being a common Thoroughbred stepping for example).

An example of a full Thoroughbred stepping being AXDA DLT3C JIUHB 0319 WPMW (where the bolded text is the week of production).

Click to expand...

Basically, the point is that, within "types" of processor stepping is totally irrelevant, and has no meaning anyways - that it is week of production that most reliably implicates good overclockability/Vcore ratios.

If you take a bunch of Thoroughbred "B" DLT3C processors of the same week, (lets say 0332 - week 32), and of different steppings (known 0332's include: JIUHB, JIXIB, NIUHB, KIUHB), and give em' all to me to play with in my system, (with the same hardware being used for each one) it is more than likely that they will all exhibit overclock/Vcore ratios that are *VERY* similar - if not identical.

Of course there are exceptions, such as faulty processors, or faults with other hardware. There are also *many* factors which make processors perform differently in any given system, such as: Hardware being used (Motherboard, Power Supply, etc.), Cooling (Air? Water? Phase?), Willingness to overvolt (If you don't want to raise the Vcore more than 1.7V it is unlikely you will hit 2500 MHz stably), etc. etc.

I would like to wish you a big:
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

EDIT: To answer your question directly - a Barton 2500+ and a Barton 2600+ of the same week should clock up about the same. Stock clock speed is pretty irrelevant, so long as the processors are of the same "type". If the 2600+ is locked, then a 2500+ would probably be more fun to play with, as the 11X multiplier is a good one to be stuck on.

Thanks to c627627 and felinusz for your replies - these forums rock!
I doubt anybody is reading down here since there are so many new posts but the Barton 2600+ is in the post...
Hope its a good one!