Crap!  I totally forgot that I need ACPI support in the kernel for an
SMP system to work the way I expected.  I guess I can load my .config
file, edit it inside menuconfig, and recompile the kernel.  I forgot -
do I need to clean out any of the stuff from this kernel before I can
recompile it, or can I simply re-make it?

I have a couple of questions also about some of the dmesg output (see
dmesg.txt attached)...

1. Bug in the BIOS?  I upgraded to the latest BIOS from Intel's site
before I began Gentoo installation.  I guess this isn't too crucial of
a bug?

OEM ID:  Product ID:  APIC at: 0xFEE00000
Processor #0 15:4 APIC version 20
Enabling APIC mode:  Flat.  Using 0 I/O APICs
BIOS bug, no explicit IRQ entries, using default mptable. (tell your hw vendor)
Processors: 1

2. What is this PCI jabber?  Anything serious?  It seems
inconsequential, but I just wanted to ask anyway.

PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:20000@e0000000 for 0000:01:00.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
  IO window: disabled.
  MEM window: e0000000-e4ffffff
  PREFETCH window: d0000000-dfffffff
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.0
  IO window: disabled.
  MEM window: e5300000-e53fffff
  PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.4
  IO window: disabled.
  MEM window: e5400000-e54fffff
  PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.5
  IO window: 1000-1fff
  MEM window: e5100000-e51fffff
  PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
  IO window: disabled.
  MEM window: e5000000-e50fffff
  PREFETCH window: disabled.

3.  I chose the Preemptive mode for the kernel - is that a good choice?

Thanks for all the replies - they were all very helpful.