I would point out that the d70 is also plastic but with the metal lens mount. I'm not familiar with the 300D's mount. I only bring this up so that you don't bang your camera around thinking it's all metal.. And yes, the D70 does feel alot better than the 300D. I have a friend who has one and when I held it I was thinking how cheap it felt. A word of caution--if you mount a tele on the D70 don't let it hang free. Someone posted how their lens ( I believe it was a 80-200 2.8 ) ripped apart from the camera. I believe the lens and the metal mount broke from the body. Here is a site I frequented when I had my D70. Even has it's own forum.
http://www.nikonians.org/
Bill
I had a 70-210 lens do that on an old minolta film slr I had......lens broke off just after the connecting ring. I have to admit.......it happened in a crash while I was mountain biking so it probably had nothing to do with build quality.
I share Jonny's amazement that you went with the D70...hell....wish I would have known I would have sold ya mine so I could get a 20D. Don't get me wrong I love my D70 but I really want what the 20D offers that the D70 doesn't have:
ISO 100
MUCH lower noise above ISO 400
optional vertical grip/battery
higher resolution