glen: I think you mean when will the next AMD chip be out. That will be thoroughbred (sp?). It is an Athlon shrunk to .13 micron, AFAIK there are no other enhancements (although they are moving some of the packaging back outside the chip). Barton is slated for Q3.
I'm waiting until June/July until I build a computer for college - it should be sweet I'm hoping for a 2.0+ GHz P4 (I want my computer to be quiet and stable), either 384 or 512 megs of RAM (depending on prices), another 100 gigs HDD (taking my 27 and 30 gigers as well), my visiontek geforce3 ti200, my soundblaster audigy, and my burner (12x), and adding a Pioneer slot-load DVD drive (how sweet!), and throwing it in one of those all new swanky screwless cases. Oh yeah, and a set of those Logitech Z560s and an awesome 19" flat trintron. It won't be cutting edge, but it should be good enough