Is this a Good Computer?

Overall the computer is not bad. The processor and graphics card look pretty good. More RAM would be a good thing for the computer. Upping it to 3GB or 4GB is probably the best thing to do. The OS is fine, no matter what Vista haters say. I have Vista Home Premium for about 15 months before getting Windows 7 Ultimate. 7 has never crashed on me, but Vista operated just fine while I had it. If you aren't having problems with Vista, stick with it. If it becomes unbearable, upgrade to 7.

It's going to depend on what your need is for the computer.

It really depends on what you're going to use the computer for. Although for general use it looks like a decent piece of kit. Only suggestion I would have is to upgrade your OS to Windows 7 64-bit and then upgrade your RAM to 3 or even 4GB.

The CPU is good, (I have a old PC with a opteron 170 at 2.8GHz and with a HD3850 it can fun crysis maxed out with no problem).

I recommend that you get extra memory 4GB or more will be good

then if you are a gamer, get a better videocard

Also, you may want to consider overclocking the CPU

You should go am3. For $30 more you can get an athlon II x4. Besides there are loads of cheap am3 motherboards on newegg that are actually pretty alright for am3. Buy one 2gb ram stick ddr2 or ddr3 (depending on board), you can always upgrade in the future anyways. But really, the ram quantity you have selected right now is good because you are using a 32bit os. Remember, only 3 point something GBs would be usable if you got 4gb. How much does the graphics card you're looking at cost? What is your spending limit? If it HAS to be nvidia, I won't bother because 8500GT is a pretty good budget card. But there are better choices, better price/performance choices on the graphics card topic.

Anyways if you get am3 there won't be much of a price difference. On the + side you are less limited to upgrades in the future.

Windows Vista? Are you crazy? I'd say get a Mac, and if you want Windows, run it in a virtual machine.