Hello,
I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 with an OS (well, Windows ME, which promptly got erased in favor of 2000 Professional) and a DVD-ROM instead of the CD-RW (but with a 20 GB HD) 3 years ago for $1,100 including shipping from Dell! This included a 17" Monitor and their standard software package (Works, WinDVD, etc.). Did I mention the 3 year warranty?
. It still works. I watched Ren and Stimpy DVDs on it last night.
I was on their Dell Factory Outlet website, not Dell Financial Services, and was finding machines loaded with XP Home for $399.00. These were 2.4 Ghz or 2.6 Ghz Pentium 4 machines, not Celerons (which are utter crap compared to the PIV).
You can find a decent laptop on there in the $700 range.
My recommendation for you, VSP, is to go onto eBay and get an IBM Thinkpad R31. These things are tanks, and for the price you're going to pay for a 600Mhz laptop, you get a 1Ghz PIII with IBM's factory warranty. It's an incredible deal. Plus, these laptops have DOS drivers, I believe. I've already had them fedex me out a CMOS battery.
Dell Financial Services gets machines off corporate lease. Dell Factory Outlet is the way to go.
Mitch