This chart can be a bit misleading. The problem I see is that all of the processors are tested in combination with different hardware.
We do all of our own benchmarking in Photoshop, but we test on equal hardware. That way, we get a good comparison.
You would be amazed how many variables there truly are when setting up a system for a specific purpose (i.e graphic design or RIP). Testing setups and configurations is truly a full time job all in itself.
As for the OP's question, XP SP2 (or SP3) will definitely see, and use, four cores, just like Techman said. We setup XP systems with 4 or 8 cores all of the time and use them all. Some software can use all of those cores, some cannot.
I personally wouldn't turn off multithreading (or Hyper Threading) unless you find that you have issues with it.
I do understand that configuring a rip versus a design computer specially when assigning PF setup and signburst sure knows his stuff
Having a hard time gettin this rip to run at a decent speed depending on wich rip i use
Flexi8.6v2
or Onyx...........even different on Mimaki`s rip
Dell 680 on XP pro sp2
with 2 XEONs 3.06 still decent proccesors but very limited by BUS speed
running 2X 15K SCSI in raid 0 but still having Page File slowdowns and it seems if i activate multithreading for 4X ... processors only run 4X 50%max
Maybe This thing was only evr designed to be a server?????
it has an old but decent at the time;video card nvidia 1400...
Bought the scsi`s brand new and maybe shouldn`t have spent the money on them???? the were expensive for the amount of storage they hold but should be faster than a velociraptor anyday
again limited by being a bit older 80 pin drives???
raid scsi controler is onboard Motherboard