I'd tend to agree. Anyone who claims athlons aren't very stable obviously hasn't had much experience with them. Yes, I'm sure both Intel and AMD have the occasional bad processor, but I've built dozens of athlon computers and have had very little processor problems. It's important to choose a good motherboard with a stable chipset however. The KT266A and KT333 have been rock solid for me so far.

Also, I've never spent time "futzing with the BIOS settings" and I thoroughly enjoy hours of solid Return to Castle Wolfenstein (quake3 engine IIRC) play.