In CEP, Amplifying to a set point is very, very easy, and AFAICT, works the same as Peak Normalizing (that's not to say I've confirmed the results are identical). Select the whole range of the WAV file, Amplify, press the button to find the highest peak. Then Amplify by whatever dB value you wish. Sort of a slightly more manual peak normalization. No real guesswork involved.
For those whose recordings are too quiet, even after peak normalization - in particular, if you have a small number of very strong peaks - search the Computer Recording forum for compression, limiting, and/or volume envelope.
I think one of the reasons people say amplify over normalize, is because <a> some programs RMS normalize, <b> some people don't know which programs use peak v. RMS normalization, and <c> some don't know certain apps allow both, and people are concerned about doing the wrong thing. With amplify, there's no guesswork as to whether one is amplifying based on peak or RMS - it's always peak. Perhaps there's a good reason to amplify instead of peak normalize, but I don't know what it is.