Replying to System Req's for AVCHD?

So I'm in the process of buying a Panny HMC-150 which shoots 1080p to SDHC cards using AVCHD at 21mbps. I've looked around but haven't gotten very consistant answers as to what kind of system power im looking at.

I'm editing with Premiere CS3, so ill be transcoding it to DVCProHD. i'm running 2.0Ghz AMD Turion w/ 3gb of RAM. I have edited DVC easily off an HVX200, if i transcode, will the footage react the same? From what I've heard you need a really powerful system to edit AVCHD smoothly.

I'm basically looking for people who have actual experiance using it.

Thanks