Yeah, $1000 is way too much for that. As for Steam, as Tami said, it seems to run on pretty much any software; I have it on PC/Windows XP, seems like it's friendly to Ubuntu and PS3 users given what I've seen on its pages, and it runs Mac as well, though it often seems like there are a lot more games able to be run on Windows than anything else (and if you have XP or above, you're usually good to go).
My problem is, it won't let me add friends until I pay for its games, but it does seem to have slowed down my Dell D620 laptop, and I don't necessarily want to pay for something if it also might slow down my computer. I was eyeing Sonic Spinball, but might see if that's available on my phone, where I'd likely play it most.