My view is that advanced search interfaces don't add a lot of value, but filtering does.

People like to be able to explore result sets interactively. Properly implemented filters give you all the functionality of advanced search, but with the benefit of seeing exactly what you are getting dynamically.

Have a look at the filters on a search like this: http://shopper.cnet.com/1770-5_9-0.html?query=Core+i5&ta...

It gives much better feedback than an advanced search does.