Where can I see the processors in action?

Where can I get a brief, benchmarked and unbiased view of the pros and cons of the common and latest processors out in the market today?

Basically, the only opinions I can base my purchases on now are are vague as "You buy a celeron for people you do not like" and "Core Duo is teh ROXORS!!!!".

I guess I just want a list of the processors and what they are capable/incapable of doing and how well and essentially for what intent they were made to record and have for later use so when someone asks me why not to get a celeron I don't just say, "Cause I like you...I'll pick you up for dinner at 7".

 

http://tomshardware.co.uk/cpu/index.html

The most informative source on hardware in my opinion.

 

There is no simple unbiased way of showing this.
The only unbiased information you can get is the features they support.
Core 2 Duo and Turion CPU's support 64-bit mode.
Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and Turion X2 are dualcore chips.

And that's pretty much where the objective information ends.

All notebook processors are made to be, well, notebook processors. So they're tweaked for low power operation.

Turion and Core 2 (Merom) use basically the same architecture as their desktop counterparts (Athlon 64 and, uh, Core 2 (Conroe), respectively)

Core and Pentium M chips from Intel are specifically designed for notebook operation.

Other than that, I tend to find www.anandtech.com's reviews most reliable, but always supplement them with reviews from other sites as well. (tomshardware, xbitlabs and whatever else you can find)

 

One more bit: Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, all the Pentium-Ms, and all the Turions can save power by lowering the CPU clocks. Celerons do not support that, so battery life on one is likely to be somewhat worse.

Basic summary:
Core 2 Duo and Turion X2 are dual-core 64-bit CPUs. The 64-bit aspect will be handy eventually, but it won't be required for quite a long time (probably a few years). The dual-core aspect will help with multi-tasking (for example, burning a DVD while also running a game).

The Core Duo is a dual-core, but without the 64-bit support.

The Turion is a 64-bit single-core (the Core 2 Solo will be too, if they ever release something like that).

The Pentium-M is a single-core 32-bit CPU. I'd probably avoid these simply because they're getting old now and they require old chipsets (if you buy a Pentium-M system, there is no chance at all that it can be upgraded to a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo later). The Core Solo is much like a Pentium-M, but with better upgrade options (same socket as the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo).

The Celeron-M is a single-core 32-bit CPU. Unlike all the others, it lacks power saving technology and will therefore be have a somewhat shorter battery life. Performance is a bit below the Pentium-M and Core Solo. If you get a Celeron-M 4x0 (410, 420, or 430) then it may be possible to upgrade to a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo later (those Celerons use the Yonah core, as used in the Core Duo). If you get an earlier Celeron-M (3x0 series) then it'll only be possible to upgrade to a Pentium-M.