I still think AMD's offering will end up being very competive with Conroe

I hope so. I'd really like to see AMD keep the market share they've gained through superior product offerings. I think though, that Intel has learned their lesson from their blunders since 2003. The market no longer automatically thinks "Intel" with respect to "processor", and Intel is painfully aware of this. I think you will see close to parity between the production AM2 CPUs and Conroe, but it won't be runaway superiority by either manufacturer. Both companies will have to fight very hard to hold market share. But we as consumers will benefit from that. If it hadn't been for AMD's superior engineering and risk taking, all we would have to look forward from Intel would be newer versions of Prescott!