Hal Rosser coughed up:

Ooooof.  Not a great metaphor.  :-P

Besides, that doesn't matter.  The OP's question stands valid regardless of
the fact that swing sits on awt.

To Marcin:

Since you are /entirely/ unfamiliar with the two subsystems, I'll spare you
the drawn out explanations.

If in doubt, go with swing.  It is more mature, has been updated more
vigorously (I think {shrug}), and is a "Better Idea" (tm), at least in the
opinion of most.

But it /does/ depend upon what you are doing.  In very select circumstances
I'll go with AWT, but those cases are exceedingly rare.