For me it's a bit like this I think:

DOS - Probably something like 166MHz or less.
Win95 - 386 to maybe 166MHz and at least 16MB RAM or so.
Win98SE - 133MHz to maybe 500MHz and 64MB RAM.
WinME - Pentium MMX 233 to maybe Athlon XP 2000+ or any Willamette. At least 128MB RAM and max of around 512MB.
WinXP - Coppermine to maybe AM2 or so. Preferably at least 512MB RAM (NLited XP) but I'd use 2GB if possible.
Win7 - Anything requiring 64 bit OS (mostly so I can use more RAM).

I don't typically use Win2k, Vista, 98FE or anything past Win7.

Nah, 32 bit protected mode operating systems were heavily used on 486s and up. pentium for NT 4. pentium II for Windows 2000. pentium III XP/Windows Server 2003. Beyond that it's basically possible to run what you want..

For a modern machine I wouldn't want less than a Core2Duo, of course.

Intel 8086 - 80386 - MS-DOS
Intel 80486 - MS-Dos/Windows 3.1
Intel Pentium P54C/P55C - 95
Intel Pentium II - 95/98
Intel Pentium III - 98se/2k
Intel Pentium IV - XP

AMD K5 - 95
AMD K6-2 - 98
AMD K6-3 - 98se
AMD Athlon XP - XP
AMD Athlon 64/x2 - Vista/XP_64

8086 - 80386 class: Hyborian Age.
486 class: stone Age.
586 class: tool Age.
Pii class: Bronze Age.
Piii class: Iron Age.
Pvi class and newer: Junk Age.

There are no clear boundaries.... Windows 95 was quite popular on 486s and you often saw people running DOS on Pentiums. 98SE was dominant on PII and PIII, and XP was dominant on PIII till C2D, then Win7 took over.
As for AMD... K6-3 is too rare and short-lived to be listed as a major age and Athlon deserves a spot.

FFXIhealer wrote:

This might go nowhere, but I'm just sitting here thinking about the history of desktop CPUs, and for ME, CPU's have an "Age". N […]
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This might go nowhere, but I'm just sitting here thinking about the history of desktop CPUs, and for ME, CPU's have an "Age". Not age like "Oh, I'm so old..." I mean AGE like the Hyborean Age, the Bronze Age, the Stone Age, etc. With that in mind, this is what I think when I hear a processor name:

Intel 8086 - 80286 - MS-DOS
Intel 80386 + 80486 - Windows 3.1
Intel Pentium P54C/P55C - Windows 95
Intel Pentium II - Windows 98
Intel Pentium III - Windows 98 SE + Windows 2000
Intel Pentium IV - Windows XP
Intel Core/Core 2 - Windows Vista
Intel i3/i5/i7 - Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10

Fit the AMD chips in there wherever they go. When I think AMD, this is all I really know:

AMD K6-2 - Windows 98
AMD K6-3 - Windows 98 SE
AMD Athlon XP - Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64/x2 - Windows Vista
AMD Whatever (modern) - Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1
AMD Ryzen - Windows 10

Real excited to see what Ryzen is capable and what prices will be like. It's about time they pushed Intel to the edge of their seat again.

Pretty much what I would classify 'time-zones' as, also go so far to say K6(200/233) for 98 and 95. Which I had at the time.

ime, for what I can remember, thats pretty much the time line of OS release against CPU which made sense mid 90's onwards until Core2Duo.

Tetrium wrote:

For me it's a bit like this I think:

DOS - Probably something like 166MHz or less.
WinME - Pentium MMX 233 to maybe Athlon XP 2000+ or any Willamette. At least 128MB RAM and max of around 512MB.

ME on a 233 equiv... o.0.

DOS I would stretch to 486 and 386, but pentiums are very much GUI era imo.
These might be possible configurations that run... but I can't see any practical use, today or even then, I doubt anyone would be running them as daily drivers. Especially given other configurations available at the time (back then).

It's only recently that people can run modern OS's on 10 years old hardware and it still be practical and useful. Other configurations running older OS etc stuff is purely academic exercises 'just because'. If someone said they were running a Core2Duo, you may not blink twice until they said they were running Vista on it. Old hardware these days don't feel so old, back then it did, so avoiding if possible (i.e following the 'status quo' upgrade path) made a lot more sense ime.

FFXIhealer wrote:

Real excited to see what Ryzen is capable and what prices will be like. It's about time they pushed Intel to the edge of their seat again.

Meh. It wasn't so long ago everyone was all hyped over Sandy Bridge, which seems to have been completely forgotten.

Seems to me like it's too hard to keep AMD processors straight. Props to Intel for making i3 < i5 < i7 so straightforward; that's good marketing.

Jorpho wrote:

FFXIhealer wrote:

Real excited to see what Ryzen is capable and what prices will be like. It's about time they pushed Intel to the edge of their seat again.

Seems to me like it's too hard to keep AMD processors straight. Props to Intel for making i3 < i5 < i7 so straightforward; that's good marketing.

They're doing the same thing with the Ax numbering on mainstream models.

Anyway, back to the topic, I would agree almost completely with OP. There was a lot more usage of dos into the 486 era. So more like 8088~80486 for dos, and add in 586 to make 3.1 as 386~586.

I usually break it down irrespective of OS though. I look at how the computers were used and sold.
(Various other CPUs{Z80, etc.}) - 80286 - CLI era
80386-5x86 - Early GUI era
Pentium I-Pentium III - Dot com startup era
Pentium IV-C2D - Mass market internet era
Core "i" - Post PC era

Jade Falcon wrote:

8086 - 80386 class: Hyborian Age. 486 class: stone Age. 586 class: tool Age. Pii class: Bronze Age. Piii class: Iron Age. Pvi […]
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8086 - 80386 class: Hyborian Age.
486 class: stone Age.
586 class: tool Age.
Pii class: Bronze Age.
Piii class: Iron Age.
Pvi class and newer: Junk Age.

I think to me it would maybe look something like this:
8086: Precambrian
80286: Cambrian
80386: Ordovician
80486 + s4: Silurian
s5 + s7 : Devonium
ss7 + slot1: Carboniferous
s370 + slotA: Permian
s423 + sA Thunderbird: Triassic
s478 + sA Athlon XP: Jurassic
s775 Preshott + s754 + s939: Cretaceous
s775 Conroe + AM2: Paleogene
s1156 + AM3: Neogene
s1366 + s1155 + s2011 + s1150 + s2011-3 + FM1 + AM1 + FM2 + s1151 + maybe AM4: Quaternary