For me, I not into going too big on monitor size. For one, I am sitting just a couple feet away (if that) from the monitor anyhow. Thus, I find that my 20" Samsung 204b non-WS LCD is perfect for games I rather play at 4:3. Then for widescreen I'm lovin' my LG 22". Also, as far as size, I find that my 20" non WS can seem just as large as my 22" WS, maybe due to the top to bottom size being notably larger still.
Anyhow, with my 20", I insisted that I got a 1600x1200 res, which the 204b does offer.
Then my 22" actually offers a slightly lower pixel count (but really not notable) at 1680x1050.
So if you work on a more typical desk like I do, I think 20" or 22" WS is just perfect if you can get that 16x12 or 16x10 res.
In fact, as you've heard, some are even happy in the 1280x range. And if your hardware isn't the best, having this lower res might allow you some more room to tack on some extra AA. However, if you do get something in the 1280x range, the monitor will very likely be 20" or less. But I wouldn't even consider a good 19" small, it can do you right. Again, depends on your tastes.
However, if you are a truly dedicated gamer, have the space, sit further away from the screen than just a few feet, and have the hardware to push it, then going higher yet with res can be a great, but definitely expensive option.
If you have decent hardware and a pretty modern card, you should have very little problem pushing 16x12 or 16x10. Even on a game like Crysis, although you may have to forget about AA.
But if you have like an 8800 card with 512mb or more of vid RAM, & a nice size memory bandwidth like the GTX & Ultra's have, then adding some AA becomes much easier, in general.
But since you said you will be getting one of these upcoming beasts from ATI or nvidia, then pushing 16x12 or 16x10 should be no problem, even on Crysis you should be able to really get things maxed out with AA and such. So...in this case, having such a nice card, I guess all I would say is just don't get a monitor with a res below 16x10 or 16x12 because these upcoming cards will laugh at 1280x and you may not get the most out of your card. But again, if you do want to go 1280x (below 20"), you can just add loads of AA no problem, which will make things look great.
I think that with LCD monitors, what it all comes down to is that (if you are on a bit of a budget) is that you want to get a monitor that has a good native res, not too high a res that some games will have trouble, and not too low to where you don't get the most out of your card.
Why? Because with LCD's, I hate scaling, as I'm sure most do (you don't want to have to scale down to improve performance if your native res is just too much for your card to handle). LCD's of course don't scale perfectly like CRT's did. With how close I sit, I find something in the 16x12 or 16x10 range to be about perfect, but not overkill. So I got monitors that natively do just that.
I think that range is a good mix of a high resolution, but still leaves some headroom (to where resolution alone isn't sucking up all my memory) to add AA, sometimes loads of it, to really get some awesome looking games.
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