Hum, so IF you got a dual-core sample with a great memory controler that didn't mind breakneck OCing, and IF you could take the heat (i.e. G4/G5, MD-20Z, two 2x120+ heatercores, etc.), and IF you had the PSU and mother board to do the job...Then
yes, a hardcore gamer use a dual-core rig with only negligible side effects. Correct?
Price? Well, true, that's an issue. If you crunch the numbers, it could make more since to get a 3500+ box and wait for cheaper dual-cores... but that's no fun lol.
Besides, some batches of the cheapest dual-cores could prove to be OCers, and then you would get scenarios similar to most every CPU family of yore- cheaper lower rated chips that OC to the same max as the higher rated, more expensive chips.
I will admit I'm optimistic, perhaps too optimistic, on some batches of cheaer dual-cores OCing well or at least decently. I guess that's just because that's what AMD has been giving me/us for quite some time now. At any rate, the more I think of it, the more I like the idea of being able to use my computer for something genuinely profitable while wasting my time gaming. Hey, I'll wouldn't mind loosing a little OC just for that: guiltless gaming lol.
DrCR
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