It is hard to call any chip the "ultimate" anything. There are too many different types of computers and users.
For mobile applications, Dothan has no equal when it comes to performance per watt. That can't be argued.
For gaming, you can OC a Dothan so it is comparable to an A64.
For multithreaded content creation apps like Photoshop, video encoding and animation software that get a huge performance boost from multiple processors, an A64 X2 will wipe the floor with any Dothan simply from the fact that it has twice the processing power at its disposal (and the multithreaded apps won't put that power to waste like games will).
In a 64-bit Linux server environment, Dothan isn't even an option since you have neither 64-bit capability nor SMP capability.
Besides, it doesn't really matter how good Dothan is as a desktop chip anyway. Intel doesn't officially support it in that configuration, and Dothan desktops are not sold in significant numbers. It is like the old dualie Celeron configurations people used to put together. They were nice performers, but they in no way made the Celeron an important SMP platform in the grand scheme of things.
That said, I'm actually excited by Intel's new desktop designs, especially if they allow Apple to do some of the cool things with their virtualization tech that I speculate may make me want to run out and buy a PowerMac in 2007.
It is no longer debatable that AMD has the superior desktop technology, and probably will continue to dominate until Conroe is released. Just enjoy the fact that the Dothan chip rules the laptop market, which is the largest growing and most profitable segment of the computer market right now. From Inetl's point of view, that is a much better pplace to be leading technologically.
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