A Intel has over 85 per cent of the processor market. The only way that Intel's competitors can compete is to undercut their prices. Non-Intel processors often have a better price/performance ratio than their Intel counterparts, which may make them a logical choice. However, when comparing performance, you have to carefully examine the different components of the performance to see if a particular processor is weaker or stronger in various areas. For example, the Cyrix processors beat Intel's processors on the price/performance ratio, but have poorer floating point performance, making them good for business applications but less appropriate for CAD work. The AMD K6 has comparable floating-point performance, falling just short of the Pentium processor.
Another major consideration is whether your chosen processor will work with your motherboard. Both the AMD K6 233 and the Intel Pentium 233 have core speeds of 233MHz and require a bus speed of 66MHZ. This means a clock multiplier factor of 3.5, which unfortunately only fairly new motherboards have. You may be limited to 200MHz, and even older motherboards limit you to 166MHz.