disc brakes and carbon you will not get for that price, stick with a decent frame first. Surferbruce has many good bikes there, they are all good and will hold out for you, cross bikes are built very tough. Also you might look at the Kona Jake the Snake (alu) and the Jamis Nova (steel), maybe even Ridley (alu) but they might be a bit out of your price range.
For prebuilt complete bikes those are all very decent and roughly in your price range assuming your are talking $USD. The best way to decide is to test ride them. If I were you I'd go for steel for a bit more comfort in the rough stuff, alu can be very unforgiving. I'm looking at the Lemond Poprad myself right now after having the Specialized M4 (alu) for a couple of years.
Cross bikes tend to have a larger standover height also due to higher bottom brackets and bigger tyres, make sure you don't get anything too large for you, most riders get a size down from what their road bike size is.
Last edited by climbo; 11-29-04 at 09:51 PM.