If AMD wasn't there in 2004, forcing Intel to (effectively) drop the Itanic and do what customers actually wanted - the AMD64 platform - we'd either be much farther back now in terms of x86; Or would be much farther in terms of ARM; (or both).
Not so much the Itanium (which simply nobody cared for) as the P4 dead-end, forcing intel to come back to the P6 architecture (via the Pentium M).
They showed the path to better integration and performances (on-chip memory controller, significantly better interconnect, better multicore integration) as well.
It's just sad how much they lost their way since the Athlon 64, and how Intel's Core just curb-stomped them.
Actually, it was very much the Itanium. At the time, Intel had no plans whatsoever to introduce a 64-bit x86 architecture - they were the only game in town for a long time, and believed that they can force the 64-bit market to be Itanium. HP and Compaq/Alpha had already given up on their 64-bit offering at that point, and either blessed Intel as the 64-bit heir (HP) or sold it to them (Alpha). The only other game in town was SPARC, which Intel wasn't really facing in the 32-bit market.
While it is true that the P4 was going nowhere, it was the 64-bit market that forced Intel to reconsider their road map; If it wasn't for AMD, 32-bit might have sped up to Core, or stayed at P4, but we'd be nowhere close to where we are today.
Seeing the words "Athlon 64" reminds me of the halcyon days of the 4400+, one of the greatest innovations at its price point in the consumer-grade processor market. It really does bring a tear to the eye.
If AMD wasn't there in 2004, forcing Intel to (effectively) drop the Itanic and do what customers actually wanted - the AMD64 platform - we'd either be much farther back now in terms of x86; Or would be much farther in terms of ARM; (or both).
AMD's gut to do AMD64 helped us all.