[RndTbl] Why *.i386.rpm?

[Glen Ditchfield]

I've got RedHat 7.3 on an old computer with an AMD K6-2 processor.  Looking 
through /var/log/rpmpkgs, I see that nearly every package came from an i386 
rpm.  The exceptions are kernel-2.4.18-10.i586.rpm and 
xmame-0.57.1-2.i586.rpm.

gcc 2.96 supports -march=k6, but the gcc info file doesn't say much.  Is there 
any difference between -march=k6 and the intel equivalent (which would be 
-march=i586, I think)?

Are there any programs that would benefit from recompilation for the k6 or 
i586?  I expect XFree86 would be able to make use of the MMX instructions.  
How about AMD's 3DNow extensions?