To be honest, if you're not a gamer, and just want stability and reliability at a decent price, go AMD. Core i5 is overkill for your needs.
Since the P4, on the intel side there has been:
Core2Duo (E4xxx, E6xxx, E7xxx and E8xxx series)
Core2Quad (Q6xxx, Q8xxx and Q9xxx series)
Core i7, i5 &...