Does a local library carry Maximum PC? The September issue for last year had a 'dream machine' feature where they built the best possible computer they could come up with, though at a totally unreasonable price point (almost US$13k). The following month they put together a budget computer (at a tenth the cost) for the best performance to price ratio. The January issue had comparisons of various components: AMD vs Intel CPUs, the best high end / mid range / budget video cards, etc. This month (which I have not gotten to yet) has a test/review of the latest dual core CPUs from AMD and Intel. These articles, and various other reviews, could give you some ideas for your own builds.

A couple other things I didn't notice answered above;
AMD will be introducing DDR2 support in an upcoming CPU, which should be out in the second half of this year (Chips In 2006: A CPU Roadmap).

PATA = parallel ATA = the standard old ribbon cables that are being replaced by SATA. It has only become necessary to start specifying the parallel part of PATA since the introduction of SATA, to avoid possible confusion.