This page is for those people. At this point it pays to wake up a bit. There is an option in make config or xconfig where you have to specify the type of CPU you are using.
Some machines use more than one processor.
You may be using an old 486 as a gateway to the internet or a more up to date Intel machine with a fast processor. Do be careful to look out for error messages at the make xconfig and make bzlilo stages. If you do get some of these the kernel won't compile and you'll have to start from the beginning once again. Be warned though that this method in itself can produce other problems with a finished kernel. Hopefully you will be one of the large crowd of people who didn't get a single error when compiling your new kernel.