just because it doesn't take advantage of multiple cores doesn't mean you have to stick with a single core cpu. that's ridiculous and you know it.
Don't even bother with P4. Dual core or even Quad core is not 'overkill' for DOSBox. (Wait until you run bethesda/later novalogic games and you'll be wishing for Core i7)

I was left with the impression that for DosBox only the GHz matter; the higher, the better. If i run DosBox on a Core2, only one core gets used, the other one sits at ~0%. And for all i know, the best Core2 Quad is at ~3200GHz (don't know about i7). That's why i was thinking at the Pentium 4, because the best one is at 3.6GHz.

The other reason i want a Pentium 4, is because i can get an old motherbord (with AGP) and run Win98 SE on it. For newer boards i can't get Win98 drivers... I plan to build a powerfull Win98 computer for old win games, pre 2000, for maximum compatibility. For dos games i want to use DosBox, that's why i need a powerfull CPU.

P4 may have high clock rate, but MHz is not everything. Comparing clocks produces meaningful results only when comparing cpus from the same family. Current Core and i7 cpus may have lower clocks but they are at least 1.5 times faster per MHz than P4...P4 actually performed very poorly even with high clocks...
So when you are deciding what cpu to get for dosbox, clock only comes into account if you are choosing between let's say Core2Duo with slightly higher and Core2Quad with slightly lower clock rate. In this case the Core2 with higher clock rate (since number of cores does not matter for dosbox) would perform better.

I own a low grade Core Duo (E2160 at 1'80 GHZ) and I can play most games from the DOS+SVGA era flawlessly. Only "Comanche 3" and "Screamer Rally" are too slow when using SVGA settings.

Ok, i understand...Thx for letting me know.
Any chance i could find out a motherboard for core2 that still has Win98 drivers? 🙁

Use a current operating system and run Windows 98 in a virtual machine. You will have less driver hassles and your Windows 98 might just run better virtualized than for real.
Mostly Windows 98 will just work on a new mother board, but you won't be able to unlock all the glory since there won't be any genuine drivers for Windows 98...

Most old win games won't work in a VirtualPC. For example i've tried Carmageddon 2, and it doesn't work. Some games work, some not, so it's not 100% compatibility.

I'm not sure any virtualizer will do a good job on games but maybe try another one...

Believe me, i've tried 2 or 3. 🙁 It was the most elegant solution, but it doesn't work for all games. Or maybe there is some virtualizer that i don't know and works for all games...😕

If i could just find a mobo with AGP for Core2 and Win 98 support, that will be great.

Dopefish wrote:

If i could just find a mobo with AGP for Core2 and Win 98 support, that will be great.

After a little bit of searching, i found one: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=775i65G&s=775 😁 It has drivers for Win98 and supports Core 2 Extreme CPUs.
Maybe i will do a thread at retropc section, for the rest of the components needed.