One note of interest:
Adobe CS2 is not fully compatible with Windows Vista operating system, so if you intend to run Vista, this may be an important factor. In particular; Photoshop may force the 'Vista Basic' theme to run when loaded, Illustrator has issues with the pallet titlebars deciding whether to be aero or basic, and ImageReady has significant issues with the pallets displaying consistently.
That said, I agree with Adamness in that Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the industry standards, and for good reason. They produce files that are compatible with most industry graphics projects.
I would say that you should take into account what long term projects you may want to do with the graphics program you decide to purchase. If you are only going to be creating content for things like customization programs and computer graphics based projects, then CorelDRAW is a viable alternative to the more expensive Adobe product.
If on the other hand you might want to create professional web based or print based graphic content as well as DesktopX projects, then Adobe is probably a better long term decision.
Mormegil (Paul Boyer) wrote a set of tutorials in designing an icon set, which shows the potential of CorelDRAW. In his experienced hands it is quite obvious that fantastic results can be attained by using that program. You can find the index here http://mormegil.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?SID=83&AID=64104
One other note on Adobe's creative suite is that the programs in the suite work extremely well together where exporting and importing files between the programs is concerned. You also have the ability to run some files 'live' where the same file might be opened in two of the programs and editing the file in one program is updated in real time in the other program.
If you decide to paint, Corel has just released 'Painter X' which is fully compatible with both Vista and Intel-based Macs. 
