True but with anything next to the images, or as part of a page, 640 x 480 is the full screen.

Doesn't matter much which you use Patty. If people are using dial-up (there are still some) the pages will load faster with smaller images.

And if rule number one was asked from my perspective, fast loading pages is the first thing.

That would mean minimum number of images on the front page, so people don't get bored waiting for the home page to load, and just go away. Also AVI's and MOV files should be later in the site. They are cute, but take time to load.

MUSIC should be avoided. Nothing worse than going to a site and hearing some dang song blast out of your speakers, without notice.

If you post a huge 2 megapixel file on your page, it's going to take some time to load and also transfer capacity. If you have the same image at lower resolution, it's going to look the same on the monitor, because a monitor is limited and anything over 90 DPI is wasted.

Easy way around the size of image problems is offer an option from the smaller image to the full size image. I don't often put anything over 500 wide on my pages, because of layout considerations, like having text columns next to images, instead of always under it.

Otherwise Mike is right. Most modern computer monitors will show a 800 wide image just fine, full screen. If you want to fill someones screen and they will see nothing else, use the big pictures.