I have no experience with Nikon but they seem good. I find a 3x zoom camera quite limiting for all around use. We have a Panasonic with a 12x zoom and its great! A Little bigger than the Nikon though. There is a few 10x zoom cameras around that are about that size though.
10 megapixel is getting a little large and not really needed for normal printing up to 8x10
I just bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30. Great little camera, fits in your pocket. It has a 28mm wide-angle lens. I took it to the Detroit Autorama and didn't have to back way up to get the whole car in the picture. Pictures turned out great. It has 7.2 megapixels and it takes pretty good video also. Cost was less than $150. Great for all around use. I highly recommend it.
I had a Nikon 5700 a few years ago and the flash went out within a year. It was still under warantee, but i was never really happy with it. I have a Canon S3 now which has a 12x optical zoom and 6 megapixals. It has proven to be a great camera so far. There is a new version out now with 8 megapixals and a few more bells and whistles.