just sold my x2 4200 because i fancied building an intel based rig, but loved my x2 had it running @ 2.5ghz happily with no vcore boost with stock cooling.
i just got a e2180 for £50 and a asus p5b premium for £50 and overclocked to e2180 to 3.15ghz which now spanks the x2 4200 bigtime. the x2 & suitable board are about the same price as my intel setup, so for me, its a no brainer - for the first time in my life its intel over amd.
in gaming terms everything runs a bit smoother, but my 8600gt is the limiter here. the x2 will be fine for gaming for a while to come if coupled with a good card. Im sure your mate wont be disappointed with the processor, the guy i sold the x2, asus m2npv-vm & 1gb ddr2 ram is still grinning ear2ear with the performance boost over his old p4 1.8 256 sdr ram etc 
intel i7 3770k @4.4, ASRock Z77 Extreme 4, 16GB Corsiar Vengance 1600 ram, ATI 5850 BE, Antec 1 Case, Antec 1 550W PSU, emu0404, 120gb agility3 ssd OS, 2x60gbvertex2raid0 Games, 3 TB total sata2 Data. win7 x64.
