All my PC's have been AMD-based systems and none of them have missed a beat.
My original PC (with an Athlon 64 3800+) has got over 6 years under it's belt and it's still chugging along quite happily.
And my current PC has got a Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition (3.2GHz), which will run all day long at 3.96GHz or at 3.6 as a quad-core (the CPU is actually a quad with 2 cores disabled, which you can unlock with the right mobo).
And I should point out that's only a very rough overclock, basically just a higher multiplier and more voltage with a small reference clock increase.
Although I did have problem when I upgraded my mobo a few weeks ago, I'll go into detail later (it's a long story).
Intel, much like Apple, simply charge too much for their products...