Dyn, all of the current AM2 dual cores would be far to expensive. The 3800+ starts at just under $300, leaving nothing left for him.
As for the Tom's, its completely disregarding the fact the equipment they used is way above what a person who was going to buy such a processor would have. They always put products in much brighter pictures than they really deserve.
As for a system, I do however think a Pentium D 805 would be wise, as long as you're willing to overclock, because if you dont, you'll have a slow as *** processor. Know that if you're going to be using stock heatsink you'll most likely only reach something at about 3.4Ghz~3.6Ghz.
I'd suggest this setup:
Pentium D 805 ~ $110
Asus P5ND2-SLI ~ $90
Antec SmarPower 2.0 SP-500 ~ $65
Gecube Radeon X1600 Pro ~ $110
Corsair ValueSelect 2GB (1GB x 2) DDR2 667 ~ $147
Total: ~$522
A bit over budget, but well rounded. Weak points are the processor and graphics card, but the X1600 Pro is probably the best value in all of graphics cards right now, and the 805 is a great value if you can OC it.