Trying to give something back to the Community...
I've just been on MSDN and noticed that the R3 download went live yesterday (it's 25 MB). So if you're a MSDN subscriber you can now download and start evaluating it.
QUICK REMINDER: MSDN/ TechNet downloads are only to be used in non-production environments unless you have a different agreement in place with Microsoft.
Read the complete post at http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/cliffs_blog/archive/2010/11/02/configmgr-2007-r3-now-available-for-download-from-msdn.aspx