Great choice! May I ask where you bought the Gateway from?
Ordered the gateway last week from Realhotstuff and just pulled the trigger on the new 3ds XL from Play Asia. Was going back and forth but figured it could be our only shot at a hackable firmware with the new 3ds. If it works out that the American release is a go I can always sell this bad boy on ebay and recoup some of the cost. Plus, I'll get to play it now provided Gateway releases the update soon.
I'm in the US and have 3ds XL with a fairly complete (all the good games) legit library. I know local multiplayer is going to be a no go on a lot of games with the PAL unit although I'm still looking for a comprehensive list of what works and what doesn't. The other thing I'm wondering about is if I need to pick up an actual PAL 3ds game to use for updating headers to play games online, or if there is another solution I haven't seen yet? Anyone else in the same boat with a PAL unit in hand or coming with no actual carts?