Midrange processors costing about $150 to $225 are faster than $50 to $100 basic processors. The most expensive processors costing about $1000 are faster than midrange processors. Though, the difference is marginal bout noticeable. For normal use like surfing on net, checking email, word processing etc. a $75 AMD Athlon XP is good enough. For a normal use system, the best option is a Pentium 4, Athlon XP, or Athlon 64 processor costing about $150 to $225 in retail-boxed form. It makes little sense to go for a high-end processor if performance matter over price.