I'm thinking of buying an MP3 player for Jenny for her birthday. Can't afford an iPod. But regardless I'm a bit lost.

Where do I download the songs, and will a Windows 98 SE comp be ablr to meet the demands?

I'm guessing your machine has USB but not Firewire, right? Before you buy a player, make sure they use USB. My iPod uses both but takes 285743 years to transfer via USB and about 1.19487 nanoseconds via Firewire.

What are your system specs? It's probable that you will be able to transfer music files to the player of your choice (providing it uses USB) on an older computer but it's best to check first. Do a websearch for the player's specs and see what the manufacturer recommends.

Where to get the mp3s? Well, you could purchase the CDs and if the copyright laws in your country allow it, rip the songs off the CDs and save them as mp3s. This can be achieved with readily available programs such as Winamp (pro), iTunes, etc. Alternatively, you could purchase and download mp3s from a music website such as itunes.com or musicmatch.com, however I can't comment on either of these sites as I haven't used them.

If you don't fear copyright infringement, you could just leech entire CD collections in mp3 format via BitTorent. A broadband connection is recommended. :)