Anecdotally, I and colleagues at my university frequently have to spend half the term of freshman English un-teaching The bad habits that incoming students picked up in their AP prep course work. Worse, because these students were assured that these courses were the equivalent of "college level "work, they are, generally speaking, much more resistant to instruction then my students who do not come into their university course work with so many preconceptions.
To answer the original question, a grade in a HS course demonstrates diligent attention to the material of that course, and its requirements. That is a skill which transfers, universally, to one’s college studies. Knowledge of a particular historic subject that was covered on that year’s exam, or a (frequently wrong) rhetorical trick, does not.
Thus, GPA > AP scores.