Which is better on battery? AMD Turion or Pentium M?

AMD Turion(TM) 64 ML-30 (1.6GHz/1MB L2 Cache)

Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 725A (1.60 GHz) (either one)

Does one processor or the other tend to be known to be better on the battery?

 

The Pentium-M will 725A offer slightly better battery life than it's competitiors; however, it is noticably slower than either the 740 or the Turion. Also, all Pentium-Ms are 32-bit processor, making them slightly less powerful and reducing your options for upgrades in the future. They will also cost more, as Intel processors are wont to do.

Knowing what systems you're looking at would help, but generally the Turion will offer the best blend of performance, battery life, and price. If battery is your only concern, go with the 725, however.

 

hp DV1000 (intel) and compaq V2000Z (amd)

I really do wish the dv1000 offered the AMD =/

 

The new HP L2000 is essentially the dv1000 with a Turion processor rather than the Celeron-M/Pentium-M. The L2000 also features an improved ATi x200M GPU, rather than the dv1000's Intel GMA 900. The L2000 amounts to being much cheaper, as well, due to the relative inexpensiveness of AMD processors, so I'd definately give it a look.

 

I would say that the AMD is a better processor. It is less money than Pentium M, offers comparable performance, and, best of all it has 64 bit capability for future proofing. Longhorn (Next-gen Windows) is going to have a 64-bit version that will probably have many advantages over the 32-bit longhorn. So, AMD is your best bet.