Oh? In today's world, a 3-year-old computer is obsolete. Even IRS
guidelines for computer depreciation state 3 years.

With prudent shopping, one can buy a featureful new system for less
than US$200. One that I bought last week and will be arriving
tomorrow can be seen here (the sales continue ad infinitum):

<http://shop2.frys.com/product/5735192>

There is one error on that page: the Athlon CPU is 2.7GHz, not 1.7.
Going to HP's web site, it's stated that system debuted March 27,
2008, so it's current technology. My weekly supermarket food bill
is higher than that ($200).

There is absolutely nothing wrong buying a refurb system; I have
four other similar ones here and they're just as good as brand-new
and they run Ubuntu, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc. and they're all dual-
core systems and all were introduced new in 2008 and their average
cost was $220 each.

> [...]
> Older computers run just fine on new versions of Linux. My 1998
> 500mhz Celeron, runs good on a 2007 version of Xandros.

That's for sure! I have one Pentium Pro system, 200MHz, 128MB RAM,
30GB HD that runs Linux just fine. And another system I salvaged
from a dumpster is only 100MHz but runs an older RH release off a
SCSI HD. It's now out of service because I ran out of space.