If you are talking crappy netbooks. Then correct. Otherwise I disagree. 19inch lcd 100 dollars, keyboard and mouse 15 dollars.

AMD II X2 255 3.1ghz
2 gig DDR3
500gig hd
intergrated graphics

Price: $360 AUD an extra $70-80 for a ati graphics card capable for playing games. Plus 115 for 19 inch Wide screen, keyboard and mouse. Total price $475 for a very decent internet browsing computer. I would recommend 5750 graphics card to be able to play most games to some degree ($106). This is from a store as a complete package.

That will beat all netbooks and crap $500 dollar laptops (usually), if you are American, Costco had some very good laptop prices.

For $680 + 115 you'd get a Sandbridge i5, thats really decent.

EDIT: Also that price doesn't include software, its an extra 80-500 for software depending what you want. You need to tell us your budget, this will allow us to give you the best advice. You may reject getting a computer that is only good for word and internet browsing when for a couple of hundred more it will be faster for longer and you can play games.

Simple rules:
ATI is cheaper than Intel
ATI is cheaper than Nvidia (in most cases)
You don't need more than 500gig hard drive in most cases
2 gigs ram is the minimum but will limit the computers lifespan, 4 gigs is better.