I can't be sure, but I believe current AMD's have worse single-core performance than mid-range Intel's that are a few years old. Upcoming AMD CPU's are supposed to be a huge upgrade from their current offerings, so maybe it's worth waiting if you aren't interested in an i5.

Most gamers do go for Intel because for the last several years they have had quite better single-core performance. But since Intel doesn't have much competition in this category they charge a lot and there hasn't been much improvements over time.