Cheap-ish build for my parents new computer

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Web browsing, online videos, Word, Aero themes

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Preferably not over $300

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, Connecticut

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, motherboard, case, video card (or can I get full Aero acceleration with onboard?), hard drive, dvd rom, RAM, power supply

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
19" widescreen, potentially upgrading to a larger size at a later date (24" or so)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Front USB and card reader ports

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64bit Windows 7 pro

Basically, my parents are using an old computer, an athlon xp 2200+ or something like that. Anything will be an improvement, however, I want to build them a quick efficient machine that's going to have full Aero acceleration, good web browsing and the capability to watch online video at a good speed. That's pretty much it! Also, they can make a computer last a while so longevity is a good thing too.

Thanks in advance!

Are you against buying a pre-built PC for your parents?

The reason why I'm asking is that the least expensive worthwhile build with all of the components that you requested will cost you well over $500. Even worse, hard drive prices are currently astronomically high due to the flooding in Thailand (even the smallest-capacity currently available hard drive now costs almost $100 by itself). Accounting for the hard drive, that leaves only about $200 available for the rest of the build. And given that the least expensive good quality PSU costs $45 and a SATA DVD burner costs $20 (don't even consider any read-only DVD-ROM drives at this point because they are equally as expensive as DVD burners these days), that leaves only $135 for the CPU, motherboard, case and RAM combined. Factoring in $50 for a case and $25 for 4GB of RAM, that leaves only $60 for the CPU and motherboard combined. At that price you'd be stuck with a totally obsolete combo that cannot run anything modern at all.

Thus, $300 for a self-build buys you a total piece of shit that either explodes and catches fire after just a few seconds of operation or is so obsolete/outdated that it cannot run anything modern at all.

Buy used.

Another vote fore prebuilt, like a Dell/HP, and they'll also get tech support for their pc.

Prebuild.

Comes with everything, mouse, keyboard, OS, etc. All the parts are tested to work with each other.

Thanks for the input guys, truly appreciated!

What are the best bands for prebuilt now? Or should I just shop retail.

Dell is usually a safe bet.

This is the only Dell that I see listed for $300 or less on their site. Looks like an AMD Sempron processor, hrm. 500 GB Hard Drive. You might be able to catch a better deal at the Dell Outlet if you are willing to buy used. Same goes for other Outlets (like Lenovo, though I am not familiar with their desktop line).

I'd suggest checking the $200-$300 dollar section of Newegg for Desktops too. I had a quick look through there and saw some options with C2D processors, though I'm not sure what the quality overall would be (one I looked at had rather a bad rating).

With such a low budget, you'd be better off finding something refurbished; such as at the Dell Outlet.

You could build one. Watch for sales, that helps.

After a little searching I found...

Case and 420W Power Supply for $45-50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144123

APU (CPU + GPU) and Motherboard for $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.765805

DVD-RW for $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

8GB RAM for $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

The hardest thing to do is getting the hard drive cheap. The flood in Thailand has been used as an excuse to raise the prices on hard drives. If you could get one for close to $50, the total should be about $300.

That is assuming you already have the Windows 7, which I believe you do.

Of course you could install Ubuntu or Linux Mint for free.