Personally, I would go with a Phenom II rig, if you're going the cheaper route.
Athlons are getting outdated faster and faster.
And also, just my opinion, but i prefer tigerdirect.com to newegg.
I just got a Phenom II x4 840 (yes I know, it has no L3 cache) pc from there with 4GB ram, 1 Tb hd...