In my Pentium 4, I currently have an IBM 8 gig (running since '95) and a WD 16 gig (running since '97). Both run fine, and actually score higher then the ATA66 reference drives in SiSoft Sandra, and they are ATA33 drives. Maybe a fluke, who knows, but they run fine to me and don't see any need to replace them. This system is run at least a few hours every day. I guess it depends on how well you take care of them.
Having said that, over the years I have seen more dead Seagates and Samsungs then anything else. I will steer clear of IBM due to all of the BS they've taken over certain Deathstar models dying prematurely. So I would vote for WD, and Maxtor.