It's common knowledge by now that the PS3 that's going to ship to PAL territories on March 23rd does not have the PS2 processor in it. This was, until now, expected to seriously reduce the compatiblity of the PS3 with PS2 games. Fortunately, the reduction of PS2 game compatibility is nowhere near as bad as most of us probably thought it would be. The PAL PS3 will be compatible with over 1000 PS2 titles on launch day, and will gain more compatibility as time goes on.
Source: 1Up