I've got friends with E46's with 200k+ that are great.
My experience has been to find the latest production possible. My 10/05 E90 was horrible, but the 09/11 E90 is flawless. Same with our last month of production E53.

If you do get a 330i (which I don't see why not - the engine is just as reliable as the 325's) it changed from 5-speed to 6-speed manual for the 2003 model year.