"The Athlon XP3200+ is the closest running at 2.2Ghz
When it's written this way you see the difference in price is actually the other way round. Still, I'd buy (and indeed just have bought) an Athlon 2500+ because they have a better core (Barton) than the Thoroughbred core that the 2600+ have. They are also a lot cheaper than the P4 2.4C, about half price or less. (Plus I have my 2500+ running at 3200+ speeds [2.2Ghz] because I have a motherboard with an Nforce2 400 North Bridge. This supports the higher fsb of the 3200+ so the motherboard can cope with the overclock just fine, and that's not even close to the limits. It's 100% stable, or has been)"
Must just be you then mate, because set up correctly, a 2400+ can run as fast as a P4 2.4
My 2400+ is only running a whisker off the speed of a 3.06GHz P4 in most test I've compared...
You just need to know your stuff, what parts to buy, and what the optimal way to put them together is...