Intels are the screwy ass-backwards endianness. Just take a look at any NON-intel device. They all match with motorolas. Heck, anything that speaks TCP/IP is the same.
I wouldn't worry much about mips-vs-mhz ratios. I've pretty much given up on paying attention to it. My 1.3gHz Thinkpad was not qualitatively different than my 2.6gHz AMD desktop. All I care about these days is portability, hard drive, portability, display, portability, power supply, portability and um... portability.
If you're looking at a laptop purchase, there's of real importance that you can do on an Intel box that you can't just as well on a Mac box.
God I never thought I'd see the day I argued for a Mac.