Here are some of the original Intel made CPU chips. They where called Intel 286, 386 or 486.

The original CPU operated as a simple CPU, meaning that it didn't have very many speed enhancements. It had only what it needed to do the job, which in 1985 to 1994 did its job. At this point, the most powerful hardware was the 486 processer, which ran at less then 100 MHz. In 1995 the Pentium chip was released and started a brand new era for CPUs, as the Pentium series up to recently have been the most powerful processers. Moving on, the Pentium series has advanced through the Pentium 2 and 3 up to the "P4" which is used in most office networks and buisness enviroments. When the P3 had made its debut, AMD (Advanded Micro Devices) had made it in to the market with their Athlon processers. As for pure power, the processer by AMD called the AMD64 FX-55 has taken over the field of microprocessors by overpowering Intel's juggernaut the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition  through extensive tests.

The next wave of technology in processers is called "the cell" which is basically a multi-microprocesser which will be used in up coming laptops and the soon coming Playstation 3.

All time line descriptions where gotten from friends and via the web through Google.

This is a picture of the most powerful CPU on the market to date