Building - Intel Dual Core or AMD 64

[MarkD]

I currently have an AMD Athalon 800 system and I think it's on it's last legs. When I run PT, GT+, and 4 tables of Party with my 100k databse the mouse lag is very high and this is what is basically forcing me to break down and buy a new system before I wanted to.

So, now dual core chips are here and reviews are showing large performance gains in multi-tasking situations. To build a dual core intel system will cost me ~1250CAN vs ~950CAN for an AMD 64 system. Are the dual core multi-tasking benefits worth the incremental costs?

edit: Poker + PT + GT (or PV if I decide to switch) are pretty intensive multi-tasking operations correct? I am currently leaning towards dual core but am looking for informed opinions.

Note: I won't' be doing much, if any, gaming on this system and hence that is not something I am very concerned about. I want poker to run very smooth and other than that I encode MP3's and that's about it (hence why I can use such an old system).