The Dell – AMD relationship is set to get deeper, the Utility Belt has learned, just weeks after Dell began selling a smattering of Dimension desktops with AMD chips.

It was a big deal when upstart chip maker AMD finally got Dell’s attention a couple of months ago; the world’s largest PC maker had long spurned AMD’s advances because of its steady relationship with Intel.

Now the two companies are readying an announcement for the beginning

of next week that could give a sense of where their courtship is

headed. Early indications are that we should expect to see more of AMD

in Dell’s offerings for businesses.

The announcement might be the expected launch of Dell’s high-end servers with AMD’s Opteron processors. But it could also fill out rumors that Dell would announce AMD-based laptops and possibly other products by the end of the year.

Both Dell and AMD could use a lift going into the holiday season. Intel sounded confident in its earnings announcement this week that it would win back share from AMD in 2007, and Dell has had to manage bad news on its earnings and battery woes.