Two other things to add to the fray:
1) C'mon people, I'm no fan of MS, but are they really any more evil than Sony? Sony products have an amazing way of self-destructing three hours after the warranty runs out (I grant you that's an incredible piece of engineering in and of itself, but it's still a pisser....)
2) I have both a PS2 and an XBOX, the one thing that sort of stole my heart about the XBOX is that it feels much more solid than the PS2. The sony box whines like a jet engine when it's powered up, the disc tray rattles like a tinkers pushcart, and the browser (which let's you view/move/delete files on your memory cards, not browse the web) never worked on my unit. On top of that, at just about the one year mark my PS2 stopped booting CDROM games. This is a common problem on many units (the specific problem being that either the CD laser, the DVD laser, or both become unfocused). The solution? Send it to Sony for 5 weeks and pay them another $130 (unless of course you're still in the 90 day warranty period).
The XBOX on the other hand is much quieter (though not silent) and just has a better fit and finish all around (granted, it weighs like 900 lbs and is built like a tank, but...) In addition, microsoft offers a comprehensive 2 year coverage plan for $49.95, which is pretty decent, plus you can extend it when the term runs out.
There's no question that the XBOX has better graphics, but it's not a generational leap (like PS1 to PS2, for example) it's just a bit more detail here and there (especially if you're right on top of a texture... walk up to tree in Halo and it looks like bark, walk up to a rock and it looks like rock... walk up to a rock in Metal Gear Solid 2, and it looks like six giant pixels).
When you get down to it, though, it's all about games, and while XBOX has a few great titles, it just can't compare the excellent library that the PS2 has accumulated... maybe in a year or two, we'll see I guess. As much as I hate to admit it, though, if we're talking just about the hardware, I'd have to give the nod to the XBOX, both for quality and quantity (read: power).
Anyway, I'm feeling a little dirty after spending so much time defending MS and I need to go take a shower and scrub with brillo (still not clean... still not clean...)
L8r,
-alex.