System 1:

Dual AMD Opteron 242
2 GB RAM

System 2:

Dual Xeon 2.8 HT
2 GB ECC RAM

How would these two systems compare performance-wise in a high load, highly multi-threaded scenario?

Even though I am an AMD fan, I would take the Xeon's over the Opterons. The Xeon processor has shown to be much better in benchmarks in database situations.

That's interesting. The only reason I even considered Opterons was because I heard they significantly outperform Xeons in some applications.

I would pick Opterons.

regards,
M.

Opterons, no question about it.

we have both and the opterons continuously perform better.

Opterons get my vote..

I would pick Opterons in the case of a gaming server but not something so database intensive...