Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Wednesday added three new high-speed processors to its product line while simultaneously cutting prices for older chips.

The Athlon XP 2100+, designed for desktop machines, runs at 1.73 GHz, and will be available immediately in PCs from several manufacturers, including Compaq and NEC. AMD says that in benchmark tests, the chip performs as well as or better than an Intel 2.1 GHz Pentium 4 processor.

The Athlon MP 2000+, built for servers and workstations, runs at 1.67 GHz, and will be available immediately from manufacturers such as RackSaver Inc. and BOXX Technologies Inc. And the Athlon 4 1600+ processor, intended for use in notebook PCs, runs at 1.4 GHz. Compaq will soon release notebooks using the processor on a configure-to-order basis, according to AMD. The company is also cutting prices on the slower mobile chips superceded by the 1600+.

"The viability of AMD's chips has increased over the last year and a half since they released the Athlon," says Technology Business Research analyst Brooks Gray. "Given the performance enhancement and their improved reliability, they should be more of a consideration for corporate servers and corporate applications."