Get a Mac. They are upgrading their product line in May and are trying to clean out the old inventory. You can find a low end i-Mac G-5 for about $950. The bad boy will last a decade with few upgrades needed.
... and for $79 buy Mac's PC parallel (or go cheap and use the Mac Bootcamp on their website). Then find a new XP and download it to the Mac...Staples and some CompUSA's still sell Windows XP Home for about $199 (don't go to Best Buy they got rid of every XP for the crappy Mac-OS knockoff Vista).
God love Bill Gates...he's a friggin evil genius the likes of which we haven't seen since PT Barnum..
No. I am not going to buy a Mac. Didn't I say as much in my post? Perhaps you didn't read past the first of two short paragraphs before you decided to post.
Thanks