I must agree. I softmodded my xbox so it didnt cost me a penny, no need to chip it, or buy a certain version of a certain game to do game save exploits.
XBMC is the best media centre software I have ever used. And I run XPMC and VISTAMC on other machines, and they dont come close.
MAME runs really well on it, though the 64MB is restrictive for some newer games.
SNES emulator and N64 Emulators kick but too.
You can copy games to HDD for really quick loading.
I would recommend everyone pick up an XBOX for £20 and sticck a big HDD in it.
And I refused to but an XBOX until this year. So glad I did now.