>See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_core
>
>There is an advantages/disadvantages section down the page a ways.

Thanks. I had looked at that page, and more specifically at the page for Intel Core 2 Duo, but now I re-examined especially the "disadvantages" part. One key sentence seems to be: "For example, most current (as of 2006) video games will run faster on a 3 GHz single-core processor than on a 2GHz dual-core processor (of the same core architecture), despite the dual-core theoretically having more processing power, because they are incapable of efficiently using more than one core at a time."

Since gaming is probably going to be the most taxing job we'll give the computer. (Mainly for the kids. Well, perhaps including an "older kid" <g>.) So, I am currently leaning towards the faster, single-chip model.