Yes, they are just the same. It's just a piece of copper.
Are you sure?
Cat5e>Cat5 no?
Yeah, there is a Cat 6 too, but the cable he already has is almost certainly Cat 5 or better, and Gigabit ethernet works on Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6, so there is no advantage in swapping.
I imagine hes talking about short 1m patch cables. If he was talking about rewiring an office, it might be different.