packages - a few questions

[Collins]

I've just installed the Core 1 distribution.

One of the deficiencies I've found with Red Hat offerings in the past,
and this appears to hold true for fedora as well, is that the packages
offered and updatable via up2dte are only for the core offerings which
represent only a fraction of the packages I might want to use.

1. Is there a service anywhere (free or subscription) that makes
available a broad variety of RPM packages beyond the core offerings
tailored for Red Hat / fedora?  I'm familiar with rpfmfind.net, but it's
a super pain in the butt to scan for everything you need and resolve
dependancies.

2. What processor type was used for the fedora core 1 distribution, i.e.
i386, i586, i686, or ??? ? If one of the lower performing types was
used, is there a way to upgrade everything to a more modern processor,
i.e. at least i686?

I'm used to the gentoo approach where almost everything I could want is
packaged and the update procedure notifies me when there are new
versions of anything I have installed, not just the core package
offerings.

What do others do to overcome this deficiency.

-- 
Thanks, Collins