People were paying him to be in the clan? That sounds just plain odd. Obv during training sessions you must of had some rich noobs running around in your server. I would of left too.
Only way I can see people making money out of CS is becoming net renowned and being sponsored and website advertitisng. Winning local competitions (only really exists in the states). Winning online competitions, very very hard with good Koreans entering.

Yeah your right 1.6 is tournaments, 1.7 is when the brought in the shields and well.......lets not mention that. What did you have in wow?

Matt HL2 is a steam client but you still need to pay for the game. Its added to your steam client list.
In terms of computing power any computer released within the last three years should be fine. You will still need a graphics card though.
A more advanced description, the computer I built to run half life when it came out was.

3ghz single core, 1 gb ddr2 ram, 6800gt 128mb

Could handle it on max graphics. Most newer computers will have the processor, the ram but a lot of dell and the like leave out the graphics card. If you dont have on I suggest you pick one up cheap online and ask a friend to install it (who knows what they are doing). Dont go to pc worlds 50 quid to install hardware rubbish.
I saw that pc world price sheet and I nearly choked on my tongue. Dont know exact prices but 50 quid to install new hardware, 20 quid for new software, around 100 for a reformat and fresh install.

Gary I do occasionally wip out red alert 1 and play lan with some one. Never looses its fun. Sonic was bar far better on the mega drive.

Wooow that was a long post