My CPU is socket 754, and it performs better then my friend's P4 3.2GHz that has HT. I think something is up with your computer.. maybe the motherboard or something. AMD 64 is very good in other things. Benchmarks prove it. My games run very smoothly.. I have Far Cry maxed out and I get great frame rates. Maybe it is the graphics card... could be.. or could be the ram or motherboard...