Maybe Intel saw something worse coming down the line from the courts.
I know that the EU's fines on Microsoft have certainly set them straight; within a few weeks of the levying of billions in penalties, Microsoft had a sudden change of heart on the default browsing modes in IE8 and released thousands of pages in additional format specifications, etc.
I wonder how comparable this agreement will be to the one signed between Microsoft and Apple that ended their legal battles over "look and feel." They signed patent cross-licensing agreements about five years later.
But the agreement came when Apple had all but lost the PC market to Microsoft--the agreement was Apple's way of capitulating and Microsoft allowing Apple to save face.
What does this mean for the Intel monopoly position in the market?
Right now, Intel can easily maintain their position on products alone -- the only place AMD can compete is on the low end, and even there Intel can cut prices to where AMD just can't compete if Intel feels like it.
All the anticompetitive stuff happened when AMD genuinely had the better product, and until that happens again, I doubt anything will happen to Intel's position.
Maybe not so great for companies getting locked out of the market (like Nvidia).