My Microcenter had a refurb Lenovo M58, Core2Duo, 2gb ddr3 ram, 80gb hd, with win7 installed for $99. I found 2gb more at OfficeDepot on clearance for $15. So, for $120, I've got myself a nice web surfing machine.
In Queens, you can get this with Win7 Pro installed for the cost of most Win7 upgrade discs...
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...er_Refurbished
I'd keep an eye out for a machine that takes DDR3, as Win7 really prefers 4gig of memory but if you'd doing super simple stuff, it probably won't matter much.
Still can't afford to upgrade?
If you can't, I'm still running Win XP at home - without *gasp* any virus protection. I keep a back up just in case, but generally find virus protection to be worthless. I've gotten two viruses (or one virus and one serious malware) in my life, both with virus protection (one w/Avast free, one with NOD.) Both resulted in me reformatting the HDD after much pain trying to remove & restore.
Be careful where you click and what attachment you open. You should be fine (until the day a headline reads "Windows XP 0-day exploit discovered... Millions defenseless." Then you might want to upgrade.)
