I have been working in the computer industry for the past decade... that said, here's what I recommend:

Windows98 (second edition) was an excellent operating system... XP, either home edition or Pro edition, blows it away.

eMachines are fine computers considering the low cost. If you are mainly going to browse the internet it's not a bad choice.

I would strongly urge you to buy a DELL. For a few hunded dollars more, say 800.00 vs 4 or 5 hundred for the emachine, you will get an entry level DELL that kicks the emachines arse.

Good luck and happy computing.