You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <alllinks galcontinue="Central_processing_unit|29" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="16" ns="0" title="Instruction set: x86" />
      <page pageid="17" ns="0" title="Sorting algorithms" />
      <page pageid="18" ns="0" title="Multiplication" />
      <page pageid="21" ns="0" title="Binary-coded decimal" />
      <page pageid="23" ns="0" title="Arithmetic logic unit" />
      <page pageid="239" ns="0" title="C language" />
      <page pageid="245" ns="0" title="BEAR2 compression" />
      <page pageid="246" ns="0" title="BEAR3 compression" />
      <page pageid="296" ns="0" title="RS-232" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>