I Want A New Camera

I'm thinking that I want a new camera to replace my crappy Nikon Coolpix 4600. Preferably one with good optics, excellent performance and great pricing. The Nikon D40 appears to fit the bill. Playing with it at Best Buy the other day, I discovered that it's highly responsive and meets and/or exceeds what I'm looking for. The only problem? It retails for nearly $600. For that price, I could buy two very good point-and-shoot cameras. I could even buy the nearly equivalent Canon S3 IS which offers excellent zoom capabilities and uses regular AA batteries and save about $250.

What I really like about the D40 is that it gives you extendability into the future because of the ability to swap out the lens. Of course, "glass" gets very expensive very quickly but the included lens should be enough to get me started.

I'm pretty much open to any suggestions and feedback at this point.