Ok heres what i came up with if i built pc for my mom so she wouldnt have to upgrade for a long time. Lol
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail
You could always get a 3000, still pwns the p4 3.2. Amds are usually better than Pentiums, unless you do highend apps (photoshop, premiere, CAD) which it's still good at, just not as good.
Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD1G400K - Retail
1gb ram will keep here going at lightning fast speeds for a long time without any complaining.
Since she doesnt game, these next three items are basic mice, keyboard and speakers.
ROSEWILL RM800P Black 3 Buttons 1x Wheel PS/2 Optical Mouse - OEM
DCT Factory SPK-008UBLK 2.0 Speaker - Retail
DCT Factory KBJ-006B Black PS/2 Wired Slim Keyboard - Retail
eVGA 256-P2-N386 Geforce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
I put the GS in just because if she ever does any gaming or you do it will preform awesome and wouldnt have to upgrade the graphics card till you build a new pc.
MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Picked this out because it is a good amd motherboard that supports pci-express so if u ever get this you could throw a better cpu and gpu in it with no problems, and oh more ram.
Fujiplus FP-988D Silver-Black 19" 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail
Big flat monitor. Good for spread sheets or anything at high resolution. Shouldnt ghost in games so its a good all around performer.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Nice big hd that she couldnt fill up even if she tried. Lol
APEX Super Case TU150 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 12V 400W with 20+4 pin Intel/AMD listed Power Supply - Retail
Nice stylish case that comes with a psu already. Should keep things looking/keeping cool.
NEC Black IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner Model ND-3550A - OEM
Just a cd/dvd burner/reader just if she wants to watch movies or burn cds.
All together comes to 1038.90 w/o shipping but theres a $90 rebate on fujiplus monitor and $10 rebate on ram. Comes to under $1,000 after rebate period.