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I would choose the dual 867 over the Mini. While the Mini has a higher clock speed this is the only area where it offers better performance (on paper). The tower will offer much better disk performance and this is the real bottleneck in most real world situations. Also, the tower is easily upgradable so you can install more/faster HDs, a better graphics card, faster CPUs, whatever you want. There is lots of life still left in a dual 867 but the Mini is pretty much what it is and there really isn't much you can do to make more out of it.

I have a dual 867.  The expansion capabilities are awesome.  Room for 4 hard drives AND 2 optical drives, 4 PCI slots, 2 GB RAM, dual monitors using the stock NVidia GeForce 4MX but upgradable to much better if needed for games.  Fans are somewhat noisy although no worse than most PCs.  Mid tower case size with very easy access to all internal components.

The Mac Mini - 1 hard drive, 1 optical, no PCI, 1 GB RAM, 1 monitor with no upgrades possible.  Very Quiet.  Very small.  Difficult to access internal components.

It's up to you and your needs.

Dual will kill mini in every aspect.

Just a think about how much "real life" that dual will have.  Meaning, how long it will live before something goes bad on it.  Its been used so, you have to consider the fact that it may not have been well kept, so a part(s) may fail.  While the mini is brand new.  It will be faster in most if not all basic tasks.  While the dual would be better for MP only apps.  And multi tasking would be better on the dual as well, all though I don't think by much.  The only limiting factor on speed I would say is the Mini's hard disc.  Video graphics as well but, that really depends on what you want to use the computer for.

If you are going to upgrade (heavily), then the dual box is the way to go.  I would start at the CPU and work around to the video card and memory if needed.  You definitely can get the tower to be much more powerful then any mini is right now.  But, you would spend more then the cost of the mini to do it well.  A good video card is about $200, CPU upgrade around $400, memory $150 or so (depending on how much you have and want to go to).  For that price you could have bought a mini in addition to your G4 tower. 

I say mini.  But, that's just me. 

Pariah wrote:

. YMMV.

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Dual 867, hands down.