As a performance jump going to AM2 from Socket 939 is basically nil. The nForce 500 is basically a beefed up nForce 4, so nVidia didn't really reinvent the wheel there. It's more a progressive evolution for the nForce series.
Fanboyism irritates me because guys on either side are only willing to root for the Red team or Green team rather than go for the better technology. The question should be 'who has the best performing hardware, drivers, and support?', not 'why does company A rock the crap out of company B? Because company B sux0rz!!!1111!!!!! They made crappy drivers and hardware 5 years ago...I'll never forget that, data be damned!" Being brand loyal keeps people from going with the best hardware. Now I'm not saying just because someone always buys Intel or AMD or ATi or nVidia is strictly a fanboy. If you use Linux, ATi's drivers and their close-source drivers make it a pain to deal with, so if you're going to use nVidia drivers so you can game, a Radeon is going to be more of a hassle. Who gives me the best bang for my money, that's what I'm interested in. I wont' blindly follow a company just because of it's status. For all the crap I've heard about ECS and Soyo boards, they've worked fine in every case I've seen them. Documentation, particularly on Soyo's part, did leave something to be desired. Do ya get where I'm going with this?
As for the nVidia Intel buyout, I don't think it's going to happen. Intel, while they've lost some steam, is still a much bigger company than AMD. Add to that they produce what are arguably the best chipsets for an Intel CPU-based system. You also have to consider that many people do not game on their computer. For Intel, they have people buying their CPU's and chipsets, many of these sales come with integrated graphics. The gaming graphics aren't needed because of what they have in the basic system. nVidia is targeting a smaller market of people, whereas Intel casts a wider net. Intel doesn't need nVidia, and while they probably will be much friendlier with each other due to the AMD ATi buyout, if Intel really wanted the high-end GPU market, they could develop it.
I'd give more merit to Intel wanting to buy Hynix, Infineon, or some other RAM manufacturer out, since that's a required part of any PC. A separate graphics card is not.