If your needs are typical and you're not a hard-core gamer, then the just-discontinued White MacBook should be showing up on the refurb store at a good discount, and should be well under $1000.
The next step up hardware-wise is the 13" MacBook Pro. They've just recently switched them to the Core iX series of chips, get that if you can afford it. The refurb Core2Duos should be perfectly excellent for typical use, but are not much of a step up from the White MacBook (which is why they discontinued it).
If you don't need an optical drive (most people don't, really) and can live with the limited (but lightning fast) space of an SSD drive, you might want to look at the MacBook Air (also just updated). VERY sweet machine for $1000, but again won't be great for 3D gaming (you gotta go for a 15" MBP to get a good portable hard-core gaming machine).
Any of these machines will play any "casual" game on the market, so if you're not a big gamer it's hard to go wrong with any of them.