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Not sure on specific comparison numbers but the newer Core 2 Duo does appear to offer substantial improvements over the first generation Core Duo.
The "Centrino" nameplating refers specifically (unless they've changed it again) to a pairing of a Pentium M family chip (PM, Core Duo, C2D) with a "genuine Intel" branded Wi-Fi chip.
The single core PM predated the dual core CD -- and the C2D is the successor to the CD. The Centrino nameplate appeared around 4 years ago when Intel was looking for a way to differentiate the very different Pentium M chip from the previous Pentium 4 chips. The Pentium M family actually derives more from the OLD Pentium 3 chip family! It was determined that the P4 had some development dead ends and bottlenecks that the supposedly more flexible and elegant P3 architecture offered ways around. I guess. Anyhow, the P3 is the ancestor of the PM, CD, and C2D chips.
Unfortunately, Intel has GOT to have the worst name lab(s) in the world working for it.
Coming from the "triumph" of the branding of the oft-disrespected Celeron family (me, I think they should have gone with "Carrotron") I guess they set the same people lose on developing an instantly hatable name for what many have called "the little chip that could" -- the PM, which already had a name. So Intel decided to try to develop a branding around a combination of the chip and an "genuine Intel" Wi-Fi chip. (Why? Who knows?) And they called it "Centrino."
(I think they did a LOT better naming the Core Duo generation of chips. I would NOT be surprised if they had some horrible name up their sleeve for it when they were in negotiation with Apple and that that far-savvier company insisted on a decent name, maybe even coming up with it themselves or at least slipping intel the number of a good name lab.)
Anyhow, Intel is a company that has consistently proven to be tin-eared and clueless when it comes to marketing itself and I'm afraid the justifiable confusion over their chip family names is simply the latest manifestation of that.
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