I have AutoCAD lite 2002. I love it. I took a few classes at the local community college and it really helped. But I enjoy CAD as a hobby. I don't do a ton of drawing on it, but it has been very useful occasionally for jobs.
The thing about AutoCad is that it's capability will always be beyond your need. As you become more fluent and find new uses for it, the program will handle it (2D for Lite) and if you ever needed to upgrade to the full version (I can't imagine why) you can carry those skills over. I don't know about the versatility of the others. I have heard good things about TurboCad, but mostly from them.
