[Thinkpad] OT: reccomendations for desktop

Hello all.
I am in the market for a new desktop since my 8 year old daughter needs
something faster. She will inherit my home brew 500 Mhz Celeron and I
get to buy something new.
I've been looking at the HP Pavilion 400 series because I want the built
in card reader (to transfer files from my 560).

I'm looking at two options, both with
80 Mb HD, HP CD-Writer Drive (48x24x48x),
3 USB 2.0 ports, 2 Firewire ports,
7-in-1 card reader, Floppy Drive,
Integrated Intel(R) Extreme Graphics,
Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound.

1> Custom Pavilion a410e PC - AMD Athlon(TM) XP2400+ operating at 2.0GHz
with 512 MB DDR / PC2700 RAM for $560 less $50 HP rebate.
This also has and AGP 8x video card slot so the video could be upgraded
later.
<http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/cart/cart_detail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1157361573.1078858163@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccciadckllgdkeicfngcfkmdfondfgg.0&clear_previous_order=true&click=viewcart>

2> Custom Pavilion a400y PC- 2.5 GHz Intel(R) Celeron (R) with 256MB
PC2100 RAM for $510 less $50 HP rebate.
<http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/cart/cart_detail.jsp?clear_previous_order=true&click=viewcart&BV_SessionID=@@@@0696360341.1078856418@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccecadckllgdkhhcfngcfkmdfondfgg.0>

Questions:
Is the Athlon CPU more desirable than the Celeron?
Is the additional memory (512 vs. 256) worthwhile?
Should I pay an additional $75 to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro?

Thanks to all

-- 
Andrew in Ann Arbor
technology is the answer, what was the question?
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