I just got a 1 Ghz emac with combo for my parents and little brother, and it's great. A much, much better deal than the imac. If you go through the stats comparison, you'll really see that the 15" imac offers NO advantages except the lcd, and many disadvantages (slower bus, no airport extreme, slower processor). The 17" imac is another story, but it costs so much more than the emac.
I upgraded the RAM to 640, and the emac runs very very fast. I don't know about those offers like the "free" RAM though. Turns out that most of them are "free" once you get $50 back 10 weeks later by rebate, AND once you pay the $40 installation fee. Maybe the deal you found has only one of those disadvantages, even still, you could practically get 256 RAM for $40 and install it yourself. Great deal. 🙄
Plus I bet you'll want more than 384 RAM eventually - OS X eats all the RAM you can give it. So I'd advise getting 512 more RAM (or more!), and installing it yourself. But the emac is a great computer. We've had NO complaints about it so far. And hey, at least with a CRT you don't have to worry about dead pixels.