Subdomains Versus International Domains

[Lance912]

For google, does it matter if your international pages are subdomains or if you have the actual international domain?

For example, suppose you own widgets.com. You expand your website into italian, french, and german. Does it matter if your foreign sites are it.widgets.com, fr.widgets.com, etc. or if it's www.widgets.fr, www.widgets.de, etc.

Again, assuming that the linking and such stays the same.

Thanks in advance.