I've bought the SimCity 4 Deluxe package for 50$ and have been quite satisfied by it. I find the gameplay just as fun as the other games in the series, and the Rush Hour features are really cool - new highways, roads, rails, and the ability to cruise around your streets etc. is quite fun.
Of course, I'm running a bit of a higher end system, so I cannot comment much on performance.
I think the website is fine, although sometimes information that seems obvious is a bit hard to find.
What kinds of problems are you having?