I'm trying to get my first real bike. We're looking at older bikes mostly, like from around 2001 to get a better bang for the $... and I'm wondering how 9 year old components compare to current day ones. For example, how does a SR XCT or RST Gila T8 fork compare to a 9 year old Rockshock Judy?

I'm not specifically asking about those two models but in general with all components, suspensions, shifters, all that... Another example, is a recent shimano Deore better then a 9 year old Deore XT ?