Well, no hockey this year and baseball is over. Time for a new pastime I guess. I have a general knowledge of computers but I want to take it a bit further. Ive decided to build my first computer and I know this is where I need to start. (I think). So I was hoping for a little advice on what I should get. I'm looking to not spend a ton of cash but I do want something that will give me options later on. Thanks ahead of time for your thoughts....

The Best Value platform at the moment is the Athlon 64 platform, using Socket 754. Processors for the platform start at about £80, but are very quick, and should get even faster with the release of WinXP 64bit next year.
A geforce 6800 is about the best price/performance card at the moment at around £160.

Alternatively, you may wish to wait a month or so, by which time Athlon 64 boards should be available with PCI Express, which will allow the use of some great mid range graphics cards such as the NVIDIA Geforce 6600GT, or the ATi Radeon X700. That and the monstorous dual graphics card slot (SLI) boards will be available.

I wouldn't call the 64's the best value just the latest technology (sure better than Wintel, but that isn't saying much). I would suggest a Athlon XP 2800 with a nForce2 ultra 400 or a VIA KT880 chipset MB for starters.