Below is a message I got from my techie nephew (He graduated from DePaul and has a master's degree as a IT... and is 30 years old - just so you know he's reliable). I thought some other people might be shopping for a new computer, just like me. I pasted his response about what to purchase:

Hey Aunt Kathie... I got your messages. I thought I would e-mail you and tell you what you need. First off, you said you need Windows XP. I tole Brad this, but I'm changing my mind after what he says next. That may be difficult because I don't see any new computers available with that. I know Microsoft was pushing vendors no longder supply that as an option. You could always build you own PC and install XP. Word of warning however...all new software in the near future won't be compatible with XP any more...Its nice how Microsoft makes you do that!

As for brands...stay away from HP or Gateway. They just load those PCs with cheap parts and junky software. I would stick with Dell on the Desktop end. That is what my mom has. We went cheaper for Deanna's family and got a brand named Acer. So far it has been fantastic and they got a lot more for thier money. You also have options on the laptop side. Dell, Toshiba, and Lenovo are all good. I've always been a fan of Toshiba laptops and Lenovo is IBM's brand. I use a Dell at work nothing has ever gone wrong for me.

As for memory and CPU:(yes, this I need!) First off...you want at least a dual core processor. A quad core would be even better. All that means is that for a dual core you have 2 processors built in to 1 and a quad is you have 4 built in to 1. They will be coming out with 8 core soon and maybe 16. Its kind of crazy actually...I looked briefly and I didn't see anything that was not at least dual core...but you'll want to make sure. And RAM is the other thing you want to make usre you get enough of. You want 2 GB (Gigabytes) of RAM. Do NOT settle for less. Vista only runs good on 2 GB...even if you are getting XP, you may want to upgrade in the future to Vista. And the other number you will see is hard disk space. (Kathie's note: this is important: Unless you plan on downloading lots of music and video around 100 GB should be fine. All desktops these days are over 100 GB, but laptops still may not be. I noticed the cheap laptop on Dell.com is 80 GB...that should be enough. If you plan on getting music and videos you may want to look for 250 GB or more. And finally...make sure you get a DVD burner. I'm shocked not evey new PC has them yet. But after checking...most PCs come standard with DVD burners. Let me know if you have any more questions. Feel free to send me links to PCs you are interested in and I'll check them out...or I can send you some that I find too. Brad