I've also generally preferred the 4:3 monitors, the first widescreen I got was by accident. I ordered 3) 4:3 19"ers from dell, and they sent me 2)19" and 1) 20" widescreen. I called and told them, and they said if I liked it to just keep it so I did. Ever since, I've really liked the center monitor being widescreen for hand coding since you get much more per line without wrapping.
My lower center monitor is where I do most of my work, and the others support what I'm doing overall, so the bigger main monitor is more productive for me.
I've also seen 3 widescreens where the right and left most were turned to portrait mode, which makes for a narrower overall workspace. I thought about doing this on this upgrade.
If I were you, I'd probably go with 3 max to start with. It's easy to add them, and you may find you want a different specific setup after going multi.
