which server should i pick?

[webnoob]

2x Dual Core Opteron 2.0Ghz
2x 250GB SATA Raid 1
4GB PC3200 ECC Micron

or

Dual Xeon 3.6Ghz 2MB Cache
2 x 250GB SATA Raid 1
4GB PC3200 ECC Micron

this is for website use.
if possible, what are the advantages in terms of performance over the other.

[wheel]

Gosh, who knows. Take your pick. Either one will likely run a bit faster on some applications than others. Personally I prefer AMD's, many others prefer Intel particularly for server apps (in fact, for a high end server app, I might lean towards Intel). But I suggest it's unlikely you'll find a hard line between the two machines without actual testing. (case in point, my local computer retailer was trying to hustle me into a really old Xeon machine. Claimed they ran tests against a newer AMD machine and the old Xeon won hands down. But not strictly because of processor speed).

What you should be doing instead of worrying about AMD vs. Intel is dumping those sata drives for some decent SCSI drives and a top of the line controller. For many apps, that will give you far more of a speed up than anything you're going to do with your CPU.

[rogerd]

Either way you should be able to handle a ton of traffic. I've heard good things about the Opterons for demanding apps like discussion forum use, but those 3.6 Xeons should move pretty quickly too. I agree with the high performance drive recommendation.