Nick,
For ~$3K budget, you have several excellent choices for 720p-class 16:9 LCD projectors, including the brand new Panasonic AE500/L500u and Sony HS20 (which should be available in the US now or in the very near future), or XGA-class DLP projectors, such as the NEC HT1000 and Optoma H56. If you stretch the budget a bit, you can have a 720p, 16:9-native DLP machine such as the Optoma H76.
Even if you watch lots of standard TV programs and play 4:3-aspect games, I would still go for a 16:9-native projector. After all, you will want higher resolutions when watching 16:9 materials (and beyond). Why "waste" 25% of screen pixels and lumens when you need them the most? Just that, at this time, the 16:9-native DLP projectors are still fairly expensive. But as I said above, there are excellent 16:9 LCD choices available.
As for the screen, one of the most economical choices is the manual pulldown models. Mine is a Da-Lite 8'x10' top-of-the-line manual pulldown with what's called "High Power" screen fabric. I had Da-Lite custom-mask it down to a 120"-diagonal 16:9 viewing area. It costed a little over $600 including shipping. Some pictures of my setup are posted
here at the AVSforum (hehe... thanks for the opportunity to link to these pics again!).
