There's plenty of budget monitors out there nowadays that fit that description. A 19-inch should be around $270 or so. A 17-inch should be around $200 or so. These are online prices, prices at a B&M store are probably higher but then you also get to inspect for dead pixels first and make sure the monitor looks good and stuff. I'm partial to Polyview monitors (V293 and V17D), but then again I used to work at the company that distributes them (Amptron), so I'm biased as to which particular brand.
Most monitors in that price range are acceptable for regular gaming. You might want to check out the monitor in the store first though (even if you decide to buy online) to see if you can notice ghosting.
The only thing that I'd really watch out for at this price range is rebate scams. Plenty of monitors that go for cheaper do so via mail-in rebates that they'll either say you didn't fill out the form correctly (and by the time they tell you, the rebate period has expired), or simply never give you the rebate and hope you forget about it (or don't have the energy to harass them about it until they give in). Once a monitor is sold, they have your money, so there's not that much incentive for them to give you some of your money back. This is especially true since most companies in this price range are new entrants that don't have a reputation to uphold. It's relatively easy to buy some monitors wholesale and set up a snazzy website about how your company rocks to sell them. So consider whether or not the price is acceptable if you don't get the rebate at all, or if you're willing to call up the company every day and threaten to sue. And read the fine print very carefully (especially when the rebate expires) and document/copy all the completed forms. Remember that for a company to survive, it has to have some sort of business model as to how to make a profit. Since the price for these monitors are pretty similar, and hence are at the general minimum needed to break even or slightly make a profit, if a company offers significantly less, they must have some way of making up the loss.
Otherwise, check out the company first and see whether or not it's one that you're comfortable with. The only one I can vouch for is the one I worked at, where I'd offhandedly give average marks in terms of product knowledge and service (it's the standard you pay for shipping there and they pay for shipping back), but a really really good score on the dead pixel policy (I wrote it myself). At least their monitors are relatively problem-free since they get them from a reputable original manufacturer (Chi Mei, 4th largest in the world) so hopefully you won't have to deal with them. But many other companies in this price range also get panels from a pretty good manufacturer too.
And somewhat completely off-topic, this is why you should be concerned about rebates, especially online ones:
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-281467.html
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,50964,00.asp
http://groups.msn.com/CyberrebateRebateRecoveryAlliance/tonewsreporters.msnw
That's right. $83 million. Heh. And for protecting yourself:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,55310,00.asp
