AMD Athlon

An open Slot-A cartridge

An Argon core "7th Generation Processor" Slot-A cartridge

Open Athlon Thunderbird slot A cartridge

Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic, was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intel's competing processors for a significant period of time. AMD has continued the Athlon name with the Athlon 64, an eighth-generation processor featuring AMD64 (later renamed x86-64) technology.

The Athlon made its debut on June 23, 1999. Athlon was the ancient Greek word for "Champion/trophy of the games".