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No matter which of the three major operating systems you’re planning on running with, the new Intel chips are really where computer technology is these days. A few friends have told me they are planning computer upgrades this spring and I recommend the i3, i5 or i7 - get the fastest one you can afford. I have a 2.8 GHz i7 with 8GB of 1067MHz DDR3 RAM; that’s a 45nm chip but 32nm chips are coming and are even faster for the same clock speed.
As for operating system, OSX is still my favorite unix build hands-down and I realize it’s really BSD. I can run Windows, Linux, Unix and OSX software all from the Aqua environment and I don’t have to deal with being my own tech support.
Everything I’ve heard about Windows 7 is great as well, it seems really solid and there’s a lot of game support out there. Get a Thermaltake case (no, not that one), an ASUS motherboard and go nuts.
If you haven’t considered Linux yet, Ubuntu 10 is so good that it’s about time you did. Ubuntu makes a netbook remix or low end hardware look good and if you want a browser-machine, this is the clear way to go. Incidentally, if most of your work computing needs can’t be done in a browser, I’d argue you’re doing it wrong.