Conroe if you can afford it. Yes, the core 2 duos outperform even AMD's top models. But for "light gaming" you don't necessarily need a conroe. You could build a light gaming machine with an AMD in it for about 700, save alot of money and still get the performance that you're looking for. The AMD single cores are still around as an option to people who don't need the very edge of technology right now. Most of the games you guys are playing you could get by with on a single core 3800. I don't like seeing people completely trash AMD like that. Sure they're not in the lead right now, but that doesn't mean they don't make quality processors. Try and see both sides of it, I'm by no means biased towards either of them. In the end, he could save alot of money and have more left over for a great video card, instead of a get me by, by building a mid range AMD machine rather than springing for the latest in everything. That may not be what the person desires but it's certainly a good option so please stop all the trash talking on AMD.