It's not supposed to "beat" anything. It's not a /serious/ platform, it's a platform for serious hobbyists
Take a look at all the C64 related developments on the 'net - C64 dev tools, emulators, sid players, documentation, demos, games, programs, hardware hacks - are all being worked on and updated to this day. WHY? Well why not. Some people just plain love to do useless things, be it learn welsh, become a politician, taking up scientoligy...
The CommodoreOne is an awesomely "useless" computer that should have enthusiasts excited over the fact they have something new to play with.
The C64 has far outdone itself - try telling the public back in 1982 that it would be capable of being a web server, IRC client, crude web browser, run 3-D texture mapped games (err.. demos I should say
... they wouldn't know what you were smoking. Maybe they still don't.
Point is, now they've raised the bar... 20MHz of raw, "pointless" power, with PCI slots and a IDE HDD...
8-bit coding is still very much in place. Embedded micros, zilog's range of 8 bitters that can be tcp/ip capable, texas instruments calculators & their insane hackers,
it's really endless so now I'll leave you all alone..
- Paul
P.S. Check this out -
http://www.analogik.com. Follow the 'visual' projects link on the left - and follow the pic's. It's of a Brisbane bus/train station still using C64s to run their displays...