The Intel Pentium III was a dominant desktop and mobile CPU in the late 90s and early 2000s. Released in 1999, it marked a significant step forward with its improved P6 microarchitecture compared to the Pentium II. It boasted features like Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) for enhanced multimedia and floating-point performance, pushing the boundaries of 3D gaming and video editing. Its clock speeds climbed steadily, reaching impressive heights for the time, making it a powerhouse for its era.