So, I'm on a dual G5 2.0 GHz powermac and I am wondering what my options are as far as editing goes. I have no pro-res, so I could only find an H.264 option under compressor that said it was for DVD Studio Pro 60 min.

So now I have these clips compressed now, and I can play them on my computer fine. Is there a timeline setting that will work with them? I could only find one option for 1080 and it was 1080i.

I'll probably be picking up a new intel mac with FCS3 in a bit, but I'm just wondering if there is a way to work with this footage as it is now?

You don't want to convert to h.264 - that's what you get straight out of the camera, and it's rough to work with even on a much faster machine than yours. I'd recommend trying either XDCAM or DVCProHD, both should be fine to edit on a G5. You'll get smaller file sizes with XDCAM but may give up some quality in high motion sequences compared to DVCProHD.