Its a fact, but a strongly contested one, that even though PCs are getting faster and faster, they are really no quicker than they were 10 years ago, and to a point, this is absolutely true.
For example, you want to type set a sheet for your local community center using some DTP or Word Processing package, or you need to analyse this years budget, or organise a database of your current stock, then there is no true dirrerence between the speed of say a 486&W95 and a C2D&Vista
Sure of course, if we are talkign massive databases consisting of hundreds of thousands of entries, then yes, the C2D will be many times quicker, but who in all honesty here, needs it to do that.
The speed we have for our uses, are
(1) - Gaming. Thats a given.
(2) - As has already been said, Converting downloaded Illegal Videos from AVI to DVD.
Sure, a 486 these days is far too slow, we need a certain ammount of power to play back any Media we want, to play our games and so on, but in truth, the difference in game play between the best C2D and the lowest is not really anywhere near half as much as some seem to try to justify, and to justify going to 8 or 12 Cores will be futile at least for a few more years yet, other than a show-off point.