Really? So most programs don't even use the current instruction sets SSE3, SSE4 etc? I wonder how much more performance you could squeeze out by using an optimized compiler as opposed to the lowest common denominator. I saw ivy bridge will have a hardware random number generation which seems like it could be a boon for scientific computing.
Isn't there like an ISO for CPU instructions? If you claim your computer is ISO 12222 it should support these instructions, kind of a deal? They should do that if they haven't.