K, well i have 2 entries here:

1) PII 300
320 megs sdram
32 meg elsa synergy 2000
8 gig hardrive
19" flatron
24X cd-rw

this one i've had for almost 5 years now...Bought it from Gateway, right when the first P2 300 system came out- and spent $3600 on it.
It runs Maya ok, no high poly characters here though (16-18K poly limit) and it is still kickin'. I give this one a 7/10.

2) AMD Athlon 2400 XP
512 meg DDR
128 meg GForce ti 8x- SOftquadroed to a Quadro 780 xgl
80 gig WD hardrive
Asus A7N8X Nforce2 Deluxe
Cd-rw 40x
19" Viewsonic G90 f

Just bought this one about two weeks ago, and it cost me only $1300 with monitor and all shipping costs. It is an incredibly smooth machine, and for Maya I give it a 10/10.