lol i always like when people swear on their life they need a cpu that runs at a certain speed. for example 3ghz lol..
just go get a p4 clocked at 3Ghz
lol jk...
E6600 and above is a good choice in my opinion, but i would personally suggest getting an intel quad core
*and like it was mentioned before the 'ghz doesnt really matter', a E6600 clocked at 2.4 Ghz for example will beat a p4 clocked at 4 Ghz.. probably even 5ghz or more..
"The bottom line is That I need a CPU that is 2.9 or 3.0ghz."
no that is not the bottom line, those requirements as was mentioned above is geared towards the old Pentium 4 line of processors. and again as was mentioned above many times, Gigahertz DOESN'T MATTER. Any core 2 duo (conroe) processor above 2.4 Ghz will be much more than adequate. you could probably just get a c2d at 1.8 or so.. and you will still be fine.