I still have two old F's (silver) and wished I had black ones just so they
would "wear in."  Kinda like an old guitar that's been around.  Just adds
character.  When I was a working pro nobody ever thought to use a
"nEverready" case, and we wore two and three cameras around our neck banging
the heck out of each other.  Never had a failure, and they still work
perfectly today.

Yes.  Absolutely.

It's a computer, my friend.  Yeah, it takes pictures, but that's just a side
effect.   <grin>

Just like with a computer purchase, to ensure the greatest longevity of your
purchase, you should buy as [latest, greatest, fastest, largest whatever] that
you can possibly afford.

Nevermind the extra 2MP.  The new DigiReb has Canon's new image processor and
USB 2.0 output.  These two features alone make the new camera worth selecting
over its predecessor.

Consider that, during the life of your camera body, you will appreciate
company support (firmware updates, etc) and spending a LOT of time downloading
images from the camera.  (Yeah, yeah, get a card reader...)

If nothing else, with the new DigIc II image processor, I'm sure the new
camera is noticeably FASTER in actual use than the old model.

Good luck!
                  :)
JR

 I actually *had* the 300D - for a little under two weeks, and I had
borrowed one for a while before that.  I found out the 350D was coming, and
returned the 300D for refund (BOY, was I glad I kept all the little baggies
and papers!), and waited until the 350D came out.  I was climbing out of my
skin for three months. = )

 I am soooo glad that I did.  The extra 2 mp are just a bonus, the REAL
pleasures (at least for me) are:

1.  MUCH faster startup time.
2.  MUCH faster burst shooting.
3.  AI-focus & AI-servo focus modes.
4.  Faster card-writing rate.

 In fact, this morning I went out back and got some fairly good action
shots of one of my dogs with little effort because of 2 & 3.  I just put it
in "sports" mode, set the ISO to 100 (lots of good morning sunlight!), stuck
my 28-105 f/2.8 lens on it, and as soon as she'd get going, I'd do the
12-shot burst.  (see note 1.)  They came out pretty good for a rank amateur
like myself.

 So... as to your question of which you should buy:  Only you can decide.
= )  The extra money for the 350D was worth it to me because the lack of
features 1, 2, and 3 was my biggest let-down with the Rebel.  If those
features are important to you, then the 350D is really where you want to be.
If those features really aren't that important to you - and money is tight -
then the 300D would be much more attractive.

 My opinion of the 350D is that it is a force to be reckoned with.  Sure,
it's not a 1Ds Mk II - but for the price, it is a *lot* of camera.  While
I'm not an industry expert, I really believe that not only will other
companies have to really re-work their product offerings and pricing because
of the 350D, I really think that Canon might have to rework its own
offerings/pricing one (or maybe two) levels up from the 350D.

 Incidentally, one of the largest reasons I decided to go with a dSLR in
the first place was the fact that digital noise is so annoying to me that
it's near physical pain for me to look at.  I shot some pics at ISO 1600
last night, and while you can see noise in the pics if you look for it, it's
much lower than I had expected.  In fact, it's pretty darn good.

(Note 1)  I think that the buffer actually holds 8 or 9 shots - but because
the camera starts writing to the card as soon as you start taking pictures,
by the time you've taken 8 or 9, a few have already been written to the
card, giving you a few more shots until the buffer runs out.  Because of
that, the speed of your card affects the number of burst shots.  My card
isn't one of the 40x or 80x speed demons, someone with one of those might
get 14 or 15 shots in the burst.  A large card is a big bonus if you're
going to use the burst mode!  While the dogs were wrestling, I blew through
150 shots before I even realized it.  That was when I realized that getting
a 2-gig card was an even better move than I had originally thought. = )  (at
the price I got the card for, there was no way that I'd have passed it up,
even for a faster model.)

 As a final note, get the kit lens with it.  It may not be the greatest
lens in the world, but it is cheap, and getting any other lens that goes
that wide will be pretty expensive.  With the 1.6 crop factor, you need a
significantly wider lens for indoor shots.  The 28mm minimum focal length on
my zoom lens doesn't work well indoors except for pretty large rooms, I find
myself grabbing the kit lens every time, and using my external flash to
light things up.

steve