I am not heavily into digital but from my limited experience with three P&S with 5 and 6 MP sensors, they will beat a 35mm right up until they start to break up due to pixelation.
What I mean is they look better, the color looks sharper and the image looks sharper.
This is a bit misleading as the 35mm technically has more detail but it just doesn't look like it.
I did notice in Pop Photo a month or two ago that they said the 20MP (or something close to that) Canon will actually beat a 35mm using good high quality film.