Today I discovered that Microsoft has a wonderful vector-based tool available. Apparently Microsoft Expression was picked up last year from another company and quietly added to the Microsoft website. Frankly, I can't see why they're not promoting it more. It looks like a very useful tool - similar to Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia's Freehand - it exports to Flash format - and create nice graphics.
Added it to my toolbox today!
Sample drawings
