E5200 or Athlon X2 5200+

The Intel chip is a better buy in terms of shear performance and overclockability. The AMD chip only has 1mb of L2 But over all cache doesn't really contribute to much but it also cant harm the performance ever.

Really it depends on what you want to do. You are asking about 2 very different platforms - read motherboard.

If you put the amd 5200+ on a mobo w a 790GX chipset such as:
GA-MA790GP-DS4H
here:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2887

then you will have a platform that you can use and enjoy now;
plus
an ez upgrade path to soon to be released PhenomII cpu - since the AM2+ mobo will support it with a mere bios upgrade.

So I see it as a temporary cpu. Both cpu's mentioned are getting old.

But I don't know details of your rig or your intent. However, that's the path I would follow. See features on link above.

The e5200 has the performance edge, but it runs on an an obsolete platform. The Athlon will run on a 790GX/FX board, both of which are fantastic value, and you won't need to replace your processor, memory AND board to upgrade. I'd wait untill the Phenom IIs to come out in January to push prices down a bit.

....which are now outdated by i7.

well maybe shanghai will save amd from bankruptcy. oh, that and the fanbois

Its going to be a while before the 775 socket series will be obsolete. yes theres the new version for corei7 but really whos gonna go out and dump so much money on a new mobo ram and cpu? - they are way overpriced right now. enthusiasts and thats it. 775 will still be around in a year or more and will become the best bang for your buck (if not already is). mobos that support the e5200 will support the q9xxx series and when prices on those drop in a year or 2 you can get one of those (which will probably blow anything AMD out of the water still in a year as well)