Comparsion across versions of Premiere?

[Duo Himura]

Okay, so I'm sorry to be a total noob here, but I could really use some advice on the various versions of Premiere and the ups and downs of each. Here's the deal:

I currently have a copy of Premiere 6.0. I haven't really gotten much mileage out of it yet, in part because I was annoyed to learn that it can't preview your clips with added effects without rendering, and in part due to general laziness at learning a relatively more complicated system than Windows Movie Maker, and in part because I wasn't equipped to start work on any of my video editing projects that I hadn't already started in WMM anyway.

That aside, I've since updated to a relatively behemoth-ish computer, with the following specs:

Intel Core i7 Quad Processor i7-920 8MB 1366 CPU
Asus P6TSE X58 Core i7 Motherboard
TRIPLE CHANNEL 12GB (6x2GB) DDR-3 1333MHZ PC3-10600
1TB 1000GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB CACHE
nVidia GeForce 9400GT 1GB DVI/HDTV PCI-Express Video Card
REALTEK 8-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD (this may change--the sound card is picking up static from the other components, and the people who built the computer said that they could replace the motherboard but it might be less hassle to just upgrade... obviously this entails giving them more money, but an onboard sound card might have been a bad call anyway)

And running Vista Home Premium 64-bit version. I have the upgrade to Windows 7, but I do not have an adequate backup if something should go awry in the transition, so I'm going to wait and get a nice external hard drive to take care of that before actually doing the upgrade (also to see if any of the initial kinks get worked out).

Now, I haven't yet been able to test this, but I heard somewhere that Premiere 6.0 isn't compatible with 64-bit systems. That would be contrary to -almost- every program I've tried with the new computer so far, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised as 6.0 -is- quite old at this point, and as I said it had a couple of features that were annoying me anyway. However, it seems like Adobe has since branched off into a bunch of different variant programs, so I could use a little help deciding between them...

The main criteria are that I'd like to not drop more than $200 on this, and a easy-to-use interface would be lovely, though I can handle a learning curve I guess. I mean, the fact that I've only taken cursory glances at the AMV guide kinda shows my lack of patience with such things, but I can master that if need be. I have no objection to buying an old version of something like Premiere Pro if that's cheaper and if it'll still work fine. I'm open to non-Premiere programs I suppose, but Premiere seems convenient since there are instructions with the AMV guide (if there's a significantly better option though I'll consider it).

What I would basically like out of whatever program is the ability to do AMV stuff, but I'm also dabbling in things on the order of an Abridged Series (well, I can do that in movie maker since quality hardly seems to matter with those, and WMM can put out okay quality for youtube anyway), and I'd really like to do a feature-length parody ala This is Otakudom or Evangelion Redeath. I don't know as that adds anything, except perhaps concerns about sound recording quality. I'm not sure an extensive array of effects are really necessary, though I do need sepia tone or the ability to fake it, I think. But given the range of options in WMM any good program should have a lot more, I would think.

Anyway, if you have any advice on this (or if I'm fine with Premiere 6.0, I mean, I'd think this computer could render fairly quickly even without a fast codec, but I am concerned about the compatibility issue), I'd appreciate it.

[Enigma]

U may wanna try Premiere Elements 8.0 :O

[Duo Himura]

U may wanna try Premiere Elements 8.0 :O

Hm, I guess my only concern is whether I'll end up not being able to do something I need to if I use a version of Elements rather than Pro... I suppose Pro might be overkill though. Does Pro have anything in particular that AMV editors might want that isn't in Elements? I mean, I suppose as long as it can create decent output it doesn't really need to be anything fancy unless compatibility with various file formats/codecs (something else I do not understand well enough yet...) is a problem.