Supergravity duals of supersymmetric four dimensional gauge theories

This article contains an overview of some recent attempts at understanding supergravity and string duals of four dimensional gauge theories using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We discuss the general philosophy underlying the various ways to realize Super YangMills theories in terms of systems of branes. We then review some of the existing duals for N =2 andN =1 theories. We also discuss di! erences and similarities with realistic theories.