Most games will run faster at lower resolutions if you compare different resolutions and the lowest in-game detail settings. If you start upping all the detail and adding a lot of Anti-Aliasing, it starts to depend on the video card more than the CPU. When it starts to depend more on the video card, there is a chance something like 1024x768 or 1280x1024 (or some variation) will seem smoother than something like 800x600 or even 640x480.
Some games, where CPU limitation occurs, will not really be affected by a higher resolution, as long as the rest of the system can keep up. - Example the Source Engine.
Everything also depends on system drivers and the operating system itself. I have had a lot better luck with games in XP 32-bit than I did with Vista 64-bit Ultimate - even with 4GB of ram and a dual-core cpu.
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