Welcome to the Mac world. I hope you find it enjoyable.
First a little perspective on Mac users. We tend to stay up-to-date on our OS versions. Those that are on 10.3 or lower will tend to be Grandmas who only use their machine to check their e-mail. They don't want their machine updated because they like it they way it is. This new technology stuff confuses them. Don't change their desktop look or they will be lost. Nothing against Grandmas (gotta love them), but that is the way it is. These people aren't your customer. They won't buy something new. So, supporting 10.3 and later should be just fine. At this point I would even say to focus on 10.4 or later.
Core Audio actually has some features that go back to 10.0.
Core Audio Overview
"Core Audio is available to all versions of Mac OS X, although older versions may not contain particular features."
I've never used Core Audio, but my understanding is that its power comes from being able to mix multiple sources and adding special effects on the fly. It does seem to handle straight recording and playback. If you get into it and it seems to be too much power (and complexity) for your needs you might want to look at QuickTime.
With Apple being this close to releasing 10.5 I'd wait until that comes out and see what new technology they have. I'm not being coy here. I don't know if there is anything new in Core Audio. Like I said, I don't use it. But you have to figure that the new operating system is "new" because it has new stuff in it.
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