What is the average CPU power?

I am creating a flash video and don't want to incapacitate anyone's computer by setting the frame rate too high. But i want the video to be as smooth as possible.

Does anyone know of a site that could give me an idea of what kind of CPU the average American consumer has in their PC?

Even if its in flops or something like that. that would probably be the easiest to compare to.

example: Average CPU runs at 30MFlops, test flash video on a 60MFlop CPU. see what the usage is. double it. and i'll have a good idea of how to adjust the fps accordingly.

most advanced users have a high AMD based system or a core 2 system... average though is probably pentium d's/ and amd 3000 - 4000 X2's... but those people probably won't be watching or using the flash... so i'd say a low end core 2 system is what you want

It's not really a question of the cpu. And it should not be a question of your framerate which should be on the order of 30 fps (or more specifically, 29.97 fps). 24 fps is typically used for film and some internet video.

It's more a question of your bitrate and compression, and the file format. A flash file can be progressively played over the internet or downloaded in its entirety and converted to any number of formats.

With a progressive download the file may be buffered and streamed at an acceptable level for your client to maintain a decent viewing. The higher the bitrate the better the quality but most folks will not hang around and wait if your bitrate is too high and the buffering too slow.

The maximum bitrate YouTube encodes Flash FLV files is 260Kbps at a resolution of 320 x 240. They then increase the resolution of the video to 425×350 which degrades the overall quality.

You need to provide a little more information as to your plans and how you plan to distribute the video.