Great resource for novice and life-long fan. Includes excellent primers on classical music, composers, styles as well as an excellent archive of reviews.
There's tons of free, good and *legal* classical mp3s available for download. Classic Cat helps you find all these gems. Links to thousands of free classical audio files.
Who says building a classical collection should cost and arm and a leg? Naxos made a name for itself by producing high quality recordings at budget prices.
This is a fun page for novice listeners. The site lists out the composers and includes short snippets of the top 100 pieces. Even if you're not an avid fan, you probably know most of these just from TV and hte movies.