Tom’s Hardware Page presents benchmarks for processors from 100 to 3100 MHz.

As I look at the 3D performance numbers, I think I can see the reason why the semiconductor industry is slumping. Three-year-old computer systems may be a lot slower than the new ones, but they’re still pretty good! Every system with a 500 MHz processor or faster can pull 60 frames per second in Quake 3. By contrast, movies show at 24 FPS and TV has 30 full frames per second. The simple-minded conclusion is that owning a computer with a processor faster than 500 MHz is a waste of time.

This is sort of wrong, for a variety of reasons:

• The physics model in the Quake 3 engine is dependent on the frame rate. People whose machine can compute each frame faster can arrange it so their characters jump higher and farther. No kidding. This sort of thing keeps gaming junkies awake at night.
• You want your frame rate to remain constant regardless of in-game conditions. This makes the game look better and also improves your aim. It takes a bit of extra overhead to make sure your computer is ready for those tough times.
• Quake 3 is not especially new. As new games come out the hardware requirements continue to rise. The graphics are improving in quality.

But these reasons will only make sense to gamers.