Trazey, your new picture is gorgeous!
My Mac is a 1.8 gig dual-processor G5. Getting a bit old school by computer standards (2004 I think) but still fabulous and expect to have it several more years, especially since I had my rev.C iMac for about 7 years before getting this tower.
But the monitor DOES make the experience. I splurged at the time and got a 20" cinema display. Now the 23" costs the same as the 20" did and I want it haha. Nothing like screen real estate to make computer time pleasant.
I've used both major platforms and frankly can't fathom why one would want to use Windows. Macs have always felt intuitive to me, while Windows machines have felt counter-intuitive, more like you need a class in order to use them.
Buy whatever works best for you, but remember that Macs are extremely secure online; the last "virus" I had was the autostart worm back in 1997. There's also a reason the last 200-person company I worked for, which had probably 150 Macs and 50 Windows machines, had 3 IT guys: 3 maintaining Windows, 0 maintaining Macs.
P.S. I like the picture of the computer CyberGypsy is considering. Whoever the manufacturer is totally ripped off the default Mac desktop!