I have a feeling he's not referring to their APUs. They've only been making them for a little over a year, unless you count Bobcat which I doubt he has in his desktop, but if so make it a little over 1.5 years. An APU isn't a motherboard IGP that just happens to come with an OEM, it's something I would hope someone even the tiniest bit hardware conscious would know they're getting and deliberately decide on.. But if I'm wrong hopefully he'll correct me. Nonetheless, I think my point stands, it's unwise to avoid a company like AMD based solely on a past experience.
The newest AMD APU, Trinity, is using a 69xx class (Northern Islands) IGP, despite the numbering being 7xxx (GCN).