yes.
Vista Home Basic: it has Aero Standard (Aero Without "glass" transparency
and no LivePreviews of windows in taskbar ) as well as Vista Basic,Windows
Classic.
Vista HomeBasic has also Sidebar,Calendar,PhotoGallery,Standard
MovieMaker,MediaPlayer,New Explorer,and most of these stuff that is "new" to
Windows.
DirectX10 for gaming is also included, so no worries.
The "crippledness" of HomeBasic is more to extended Networking and Business
Needs, and of course there is no MediaCenter or Ultimate Extras Goodies for
that Windows.
But with "Anytime Upgrade" in controlpanel you can always buy a new
ProductKey and go up to HomePremium or directly to Ultimate, which is the
only true Full Version.
The Key alone is all you need, as all Editions are on the very same DVD.
Hint: install Windows Vista RC1/2/Final without entering a Key - then you
can choose which edition you want - then just try HomeBasic for 30 days out
and see what it has.
(it has far more features than XP Home - btw )