Sorry dude, but the ION based Zotac motherboard plus a case cost me less than $250, and it took me about an hour to put a minimal install of Ubuntu and XBMC (Linux Edition) on there.
I now have a completely silent HTPC with Optical, SPDIF, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet and Wireless LAN for < $300... and it plays ALL 1080p flawlessly, with full Dolby Digital and DTS passthrough. (I believe the latest version of XBMC also supports Dolby True HD through HDMI).
And, it has thousands of music visualizers, album cover art, and is completely skinnable.

Damn, those are purdy!

The ZOTAC ION motherboard with an Atom N330 has all the outputs you'll ever need (HDMI (with HDMI audio OUT), SPDIF, Optical, etc) and will decode 1080p content with the XBMC Live CD (9.04 currently)...

And this has the advantage of having the super slick and extremely useable XBMC interface.

I haven't come across a single video format that it won't play.

I just picked up an Acer Aspire Revo for this very reason... I hate the UI on the A-100/110 after being used to years of awesomeness with XBMC on the Xbox 1. Now that the nVidia ION based Revo runs with Linux XBMC with hardware decoding of 1080p stuff and HDMI output -- I can now watch HD stuff with my lovely XBMC interface :)

I wanna play Galaxian on that thing :D

I like the idea of having some sort of 'soft buttons' like the Optimus Prime keyboard, but using a touchpad instead of the physical OLED buttons... I can't work out how one would actually use a dock in the trackpad without triggering apps all the time by mistake (unless it's a multitouch finger combo to bring it up).

I would much rather have had a couple of rows of programmable soft buttons, using touch display tech from iPod/iPhone, and put them down the sides beside the keyboard, or put a top row of keys where the function keys exist on PC's... you could do some seriously cool stuff with that.

Then there's something wrong with your A3. Mine regularly lasts 8-10hrs (depending on brightness settings). I travel between LA and London every 2-3 months, and I'd be well f**ked without my A3.

A3 was a better choice anyway... 10hrs of video on a single charge - no other PMP can touch it.

OMG! It's Boxy from the 1980's Battlestar Galactica :o

heh... I'd love to see the battery life on that Apple monster DS