Hi Krisdv,
i386 and i686 are different architectures of your processor say pentium 3 and 4... The PPro, PII and PIII are all 686, but from what I read the PIV is a 786.
i386 packages are compiled with the options/instructions which an Intel 80386 (+equivalent) will run.
i686 (or IA64) are for the new 64bit chips.
Many vendors have more than one kernal of linux in there distribution.so the best matches the processor is installed.
Hope now the difference in architecture is clear for you.
Regards,
Bright
