Hey guys, here's my question:

I am looking to buy a new rig and need some guidance. I want to avoid an Athlon at all costs, (since I cracked the core on the chip I had previously and am very disappointed with it's overall quality), and I am willing to spend about $600 for the whole setup (ram, mobo, and cpu). I used to be a die-hard Intel fan and I have been drawn back to the apparent stability and quality (both of the physicalities of the chip itself and of overall system performance) of the Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz. However, I've also been tempted by a setup I saw at monarchcomputer.com that featured dual Durons at 1 Ghz with DDR ram. My question is, which do you think would be the better investment for a 3d gamer like myself? Also, any advice on lower prices would also be appreciated!! The durons would be on a Tyan Tiger MP mobo and both setups would have 512 megs of RAM.


Thanks,
Evan