Olympus E-500 has a 8.0MP Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm ) sized CCD sensor . On the other hand, Panasonic S5 II has a 24.0MP Full frame (35.6 x 23.8 mm ) sized CMOS sensor and features Venus Engine processor.
Panasonic S5 II's sensor provides 16MP more than Olympus E-500's sensor, which gives a significant advantage in real life. You can print your images larger or crop more freely.
On the other hand, please keep in mind that Max sensor resolution is not the only determinant of resolving power. Factors such as the optical elements, low pass filter, pixel size and sensor technology also affects the final resolution of the captured image.
One other difference between these two cameras that is worth mentioning is that Panasonic S5 II's sensor doesn't have an anti-alias (Low-Pass) filter. Removing anti-alias filter increases the sharpness and level of detail but at the same time, it increases the chance of moiré occurring in certain scenes.
Below you can see the E-500 and S5 Mark II sensor size comparison.
Sensor Size and Resolution Comparison image of Olympus E-500 and Panasonic S5 II Cameras
As seen above, Panasonic S5 II has a 3.8x Larger sensor area than Olympus E-500. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.