Windows Media Center - Should I use it?

Well, I have had my Dell for almost a year, and it is by far my favorite non-living thing the world.  I have an XPS 410 Intel 2 Duo Processor E6600 (2.4 GHz) with a 4MB cache....2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz...yadda yadda yadda.  The prupose of the post is the Media Center...I have never used it.  Everything in my world is moving so fast, I never sat down to explore it.  I guess my question, simply put, is what the heck is it?  I have a remote and a separate fancy box it came in, but what is the popular opinion on it?  Who loves it?  Who hates it?  What does everyone use it for?  It has a remote and the abiliy to connect to my TV, that excites me.  I was so pumped to hook up my new PC, get on the web, and play my favorite games on this superbly powerful machine and never stopped to smell the media center...any info would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!