A dual core processor is talking about the architecture/design of the processor. As the name suggests, there are two processors on one CPU. The Core 2 Duo was a line of dual core CPUs manufactured by...
In general, the more cores the better, but it depends on what you want to do. (It does not matter how many cores you have, if you don't have software that can use them, or if you don't place demands...
Both are almost the same but Intel core 2 duo is better. The above answer is wrong. Core 2 quad is 4 core processor and core 2 duo is 2 core processor.