I figured he was doing it to get 'niceness points' with my Mom.
No, they won't outpace the Sandy Bridge processors. I only use a few games, OnLive, Photoshop Essentials 10, Mail.app, Safari, Chrome, Spotify, etc.
Just out of curiosity, could the 13 inch MBP run Final Cut Pro X?
Yes, the 13"MBP base is a Core i5 2.4 Ghz with 4GB ram. FCX requires only a Core 2 Duo processor with an Open CL GPU. The 13" far exceeds the system requirements.