I haven't kept up on the latest stuff either, I usually just fix what people throw at me. The best place to start is
www.newegg.com.
Definitely go for a Core 2 Duo processor, just make sure it doesn't have a Merom core; those ones are for laptops. The current quad cores are very overrated. One thing not to forget is the heat sink and thermal compound. I prefer Arctic Silver 5 for the compound...Heat sinks I'm not sure about.
For a motherboard, go for ASUS. They are absolutely rock solid. It should also come with am Ethernet connection for any networking / high speed internet connection you might get / have.
In terms of RAM, 2GB of dual channel DDR2 would be the best. OCZ and Corsair both make high quality modules last time I checked. In general, the higher the number after the "PC" is better.
For a hard disk, I like Western Digital, but that's mostly a matter of preference. Anything with 7200 RPM and 160GB+ should be good for what you want to do. SATA connections are faster than IDE ones, also.
The GPU's are the one thing I haven't kept up with...
That should be everything...But I'm posting on an empty stomach. More might come to me later. Hope this helps.