One of the biggest things about P4 now which everyone is ignoring is this.
You will have to buy another motherboard in less than six months to upgrade your P4 processor.
P4 is a horribly cost ineffective choice right now. It is on average slower than Athlon 1.2 esp in a KT133a mobo. Further, to go that way now is not an investment in the future. The only thing which you might keep six months from now is the overpriced RDRAM. Which will likely come much more down in price as DDR starts coming in as more competition.
Buying a P4 system now is no investment in the future. It is money down the drain that will all have to be replaced when and if the P4 ever really does become the fastest performer sometime at the end of the year.
It is not at all clear that will happen though. Palominos may well beat it. Unlike the 2nd half P4's, Palominos will plug into current KT133a (or DDR) mobos just fine. Making the KT133A mobos with mondo cheap Crucial SDRAM a real investment in a future upgrade or two.
That is my current building, much researched, analysis.