RAMBUS RAM is actually better performing than older DDR that was around at the time. The issue was the speed made it prohibitively expensive. Intel tried to make it stick but in the end customers voices drowned out any reason, and they switched to DDR in the wake of falling sales. As a result of the original cost, and low sales of RIMM based machines, RIMMs are harder to find and more expensive. Being shackled by DDR RAM was one reason earlier P4s performed so woefully I think, they were not designed for such low RAM speeds, meaning there is a big step between the FSB and RAM.

If you need a decent, solid performing P4 workstation, I'd say it's probably worth finding a 1GB in RIMMs and getting it working. The Precision workstations have always been really nice machines. They are made for industry and heavy duty usage, not as glorified typewriters, so they perform well and are rock solid for the most part. No consumer crap there.

Although generations apart, I use a Precision 390 at work (same class, but the Core 2 Duo version released in 2006) and it's by far the best PC I've ever used. Thankfully for the companies wallet I got 2GB of RAM with it and it takes DDR2 not DDR2-FBDIMMs like the higher spec machines.

Regardless, it's not 'just another Dell'. It's 'just another very nice Dell'