"3DMark Vantage Breathes New Life Into AMD Phenom"

How? I don't think this benchmark shows Phenom in a positive light at all, especially the quads. The fastest Phenom, a 9850BE @ 3GHz is slower than a stock Q9300 @ 2.5GHz. If you count max overclock, its 40% slower than a Q6600 @ 3.8GHz.

Moving on to the X3, at stock they match up well with C2Ds, but at max overclock falls behind slightly. However, considering the small price gap between tris and quads at this point, it doesn't really make much sense to get an X3, especially if you want maximum 3DMark e-peen scores.