What next?

I plan on getting a new motherboard soon, and to go with it, a new processor a week or two down the road.  My E4400 is needing a break.

I checked the stock of the store I go to and two are in my price range, but I can't decide which one would be best for me.  I enjoy my games so its preferable that it suits to gaming the most.

The Core2Duo E8400?  3.0GHz, 6mb Cache, 1333FSB? (very comfortable price for me)

or

Core2Quad E8300? 2.5GHz, 4mb Cache, 1333FSB (this one is about the top of the price range, and 25 bucks more than the one above)

How important is a bigger cache for performance?

For gaming, you'll get more performance out of the E8400.  Its increased cache and much higher frequency will offer more performance in most games than the E8300.

Thanks.

It is what I had suspected, but just wanted to make sure before I dumped a few more dollars on this.

May I ask what the price range is?

Kinda shooting around $200 Canadian

Well, in that case, I would say the e8400 is your best bet.  They're very good for gaming.  The e line of quads lack the cache to make them the best bang for the buck.  For quads, the q line is the best because of the higher cache.  However, if you're primarily gaming and no overclocking then your best bet is the e8400.  $190 canadian on newegg canada, minus the shipping fee (whatever it may be.)  Good luck!