Upgrade to xp, stick w/ the amd processor (get a beastlier one? i'm pretty happy w/ my barton 3200), if your really worried about the drives, get two beastly ones from maxtor or western digital (personal preference, they're both pretty solid), and raid them, plextor still makes some very nice cd-rs / cd-rws so i'd probably go w/ a newer plextor. Depending on what your looking to spend, get a nice video card (nvidia / ati) and a gig or so of dual channelled ram.
With a rig like that, you shouldn't have too many problems, if your doing something heavy or just want to get out of hand, you can always add more ram, bigger drives, etc...
just my
