I just received my copy of CFS3 that I got off ebay, I played with it a little and it seems to run great on my system, but before I get to far into it I figured I would stop here and ask those of you who have already been messing with it for a while if there are any "must have files" or patches or anything I need to download for it straight away.
  I'll check back later and see what you guys have suggested.

  Well besides the 3.1 patch I found the cockpit view widener and guage clarifier downloads to be very helpful.  They can be found at the link above in the "cockpit" section.  The actual process of installing it is a little tedious but well worth it if you want to fly by instruments and not point your cursor at them to read them.