I wouldnt say go AMD, as much as I like Vishira and how well it performs compared to bulldozer, the 8 core is a hard sell, i would be likely to recommend a 4300/6300 instead of an i3 though. However it pisses me off no one has tested the two to compare them. I can only go off of the few benchmarks I have seen.
this is the best I got.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/700?vs=677
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=677


Though I would love to see more AMD rigs around, Intel is getting way too complacent. Steamroller unfortunately wont be out until 2014 and considering that haswell is only expected to be a 10% boost, Choosing between amd and intel in 2014 should be a much harder choice.

at the i5 level...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=701
Its hard to recomend AMD for gaming, however for workstation style apps give AMD a good solid look.