Ok, I have the new monitor now. It's a Samsung Syncmaster 763mb, for those who are interested. It's pretty good, especially for the price, although the geometry seems a little dodgy. There's a tendency for horizontal lines to "sag" a little in the middle of the screen.

On the off chance the "sag" becomes too pronouced to be tolerable, any suggestions for alternate monitors would be appreciated. Sag or no, now I can actually read them.