I just wanted to chime in with my opinion. I have been a diehard PC user for 15 years, all the way from MS DOS up to Windows XP. I'm a systems administrator and work mainly with PCs. At home, I only use my Powerbook. Why did I switch? Several reasons.
For starters, when you erase a program in OS X, there's no files left behind. In Windows, you have to reformat once a year because so much crap gets built up on your drive, and in your registry. I was absolutely anal about keeping Win XP clean and still have to reformat now and then. Secondly, when you DO reformat, finding and backing up all of your stuff in Windows is a joke. It took me an hour the first time, to find where Outlook stashed my data. Crap is just thrown all over the drive in Microsoft's maze of nonsensical folders. In OS X it's a pure Unix file structure. In other words, drag your home folder to your backup drive, and you're done. And when you do that, you're also backing up your address book, iCal, and even your little auto-completes in Safari, and your saved passwords and whatnot.
As for speed, I will agree that Macs are slower. There's simply no debating that. I still use my Athlon 2400 PC for gaming. As for stability, I would say OS X and Win XP are identical. Both are very stable operating systems. This is of course, assuming your PC doesn't get infested with viruses and spyware.
Lastly, there's little things about Mac that just hooked me, and I love. Such as when I'm typing in a messenger to a friend, and the OS automatically spell checks for me. This works in any app and it's wonderful. Or how about the auto-form fill in feature? I love that. I REALLY love that I can just close the lid on my Powerbook at the end of class, and slip it into my backpack. At the start of each class, all these people are booting up their PCs and they look at me funny when I just open the lid of my Powerbook and start typing.
As for price, the Dell 600M I was looking at getting (wanted something small) was $1800. I paid $1550 for my Powerbook. There's simply no comparison there.
I'm glad you're happy with at least one platform, and Athlon's are great chips. I personally have had it with Windows. I still love PCs, but I only run Unix/Linux on them. I switched to this Mac about 6 months ago and I don't see myself ever going back.
Oh and just for the record, several of my friends including my girlfriend all used my Powerbook and loved it so much that they went out and bought one. They all love them, and feel the same way. The fact is, you're in the minority, almost nobody switches to Mac and regrets it.