Please update when you pick a bike. I'm in a similar situation. I haven't ridden a road bike in 30 years, and since my last road rides were steel Peugeot and Raleigh low end, I think any entry level Trek or Giant would blow me away.
I'll be shopping for a bike in about a month. From what I've read I'm going to look at Giant Defy first, then Trek 1.1 or 1.2, Jamis steel bikes and Raleigh. I'm interested in the ride difference between steel and aluminum frames, and I'd like to see what kind of difference the fork material makes and from these four I think I can see a racy frame, a less racy/more comfort frame, an aluminum fork, a CM fork, and a CF fork. Then I'll pick which one rides and fits best and then I might get into trying to decide if the components are that important money wise to me. At least that's the plan. It might change tomorrow. I want to concentrate on ride and fit. I plan on spending as little as possible but I think I'll be in the 1K range for just the bike. Hopefully I'm wrong and I'll fall in love with one I can get for 700 bucks.