BRL
You've asked a difficult question! The market is heavily split between the Macromedia and Adobe products.
Before parting with cash - get the demo downloads and see how you feel. Understand exactly what you want from the applications and then score them on that basis. However, what I can say is whatever you get, they'll be worth the money.
I'm into Adobe (GoLive, Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design and LiveMotion, but good professionals I know wont go past the MX products - longet term they could be right.
However, there is nothing that one set can do that the other can't (at the time of writing!).
You could also try these links - they are for the discussion forums for Macromedia and Adobe products - that's usually were you find out the 'warts and all' picture from real users.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/dr...am_newsgrp.htm
http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/main.html
Hope this helps.
Cello