Dave points to and comments on Stephen Shankland:

Apple has used IBM’s PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel’s chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said.

In light of recent moves by Intel to bake DRM into their chipsets, along with Apple’s growing DRM platform (Fairplay, iTunes and Quicktime – which run on windows pc’s and Mac OS X’s), this smells to me like a deal based on a big DRM rollup – paving the way for Apple’s much discussed HD movie/video download system.
Tom’s Hardware has more on Intel’s hardware DRM (Digital Restriction Management) plans.