Here's my best attempt at a good explanation when looking at AMD and Intel CPUs.
To start with, right now Intel has no competition at the top tier of CPUs for gaming. So if you're willing to pay the price and are not willing to sacrifice on quality due to brands, Intel is the only way to go. Sadly, Intel also offers the best deals at virtually every price point for CPUs as well. So from a strict money per performance viewpoint, Intel is your go to manufacturer right now.
The only real place where going AMD has price/performance say right now is at the roughly ~$125 range. This is because you can get a hold of an AMD quad core (in the form of the FX series and the Phenom IIs) while Intel still only offers dual cores. Now, clock per clock in single player games, even when the AMD's are overclocked, the i3 (especially the higher clocked 2120s) are the winner. Where they can fall flat though is in multiplayer situations and really any game that can take full advantage of 4 physical cores. In this arena AMD's CPUs pull ahead.
I also need to make sure I stress this point, AMD processors DO work. They are overpowered by their Intel competitions, but you can still definitely play games on them with very enjoyable fps. Sometimes, the difference in AMD and Intel processor in a game is less than 5 fps, which is not noticeable except in benchmarks. If for whatever reason, you must go AMD, the only Bulldozer processor I can recommend is the FX-4170 (and even then only if you get a good aftermarket cooler). This is because games simply do not stand to benefit from more than 4 threads. The 6 and 8 core FX chips simply offer no real benefits. The Phenom IIs are AMD's other offerings that still offer decent gaming performance, most notably the Phenom II x4 955-980 and basically any of the Phenom II x6. To make sure they don't hold you back though, I strongly advise a good after market cooler and liberal overclocking.
All this being said, if you can afford an Intel quad core CPU, go for it. You will not regret it. They have all the benefits of four physical cores and Intel's superior architecture, which is a combination you just can't go wrong with that. I personally recommend any Intel i5 if it's in your price range. Which specific kind is more dependent on whether you plan to overclock and what how strict your budget happens to be.
I hope I didn't leave any important info out or make it too long to hold your interest! If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them. Also important to remember this is strictly talking about gaming, if you're looking at productivity based software you will need the advise of some our other forum members!
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