[rasz]

Wasnt that bad. H.264 ratified in 2003, meanwhile even first Xbox released in 2001 (~celeron 733MHz) can play H.264 480p 2.5Mbit (DVD resolution, equal quality to 10Mbit mpeg2) movies with ease, just as desktop budget processors released in 2001 (Celeron 800/Duron 800, both included SSE).

Higher resolutions were another matter. 720p needed at least 2GHz Athlon/2.8GHz P4 for smooth H.264 720p 5Mbit playback. Either top of the line 2003 CPUs, or 2006-2007 budget ones.

H.264 1080p 30Mbit bluray released in 2006 could be decoded purely in software on top of the line 2006-2007 CPUs (dual core P4, A64 X2).