I've used both platforms for many years now.

The truth is they both still suck, buy a dedicated recorder. Unless you can afford a full blown protools (Mac) system using the dedicated hardware from digi, and a good control surface, computer based recording is pretty lame to this day for most of the consumer stuff.

Now being realistic, either PC or Mac would be fine. As long as you set the machine up correctly and work with in it's limitation then both will serve the role well. Mac is easier than the PC over all to deal with.

As far a the PC spec you mention, it would be fine but don't use the soundblaster if audio quality is of high importance. I am assuming the card is bundled with the machine, it wont hurt to have it in there unless there is a conflict but those are often easy to get around. I would avoid ME, and XP and go with Win2000 as it is more stable if tweaked correctly for your needs. Also stick with Dell and Gateway if you can, or better yet build the PC yourself avoiding some junk you probally don't need. They are just easier machines to deal with once you pop the box open.

I personally use a PC as all my old macs, aside from my Mac SE and even older IIe, died. Still use the old macs but just for shits and giggles or if I really want the 80's feel. Time for new one accually. Still I do a pretty comfy 8 tracks of audio and tons of sample editing on a 255MHz PC. I can do 16 if I want to risk some problems. Needless to say I have more than enough outboard to avoid the use of plugins. If I needed to run them my machine wouldn't be remotely useful.

It really depend on your needs. I personally don't see the Mac vs PC argument holding as much weight as it has in the past. Over all the mac is still a little better but those systems are costly. For the consumer stuff it is all about the same these days. You really need how to learn to use either machine well before either will be stable for you.