mp3 player Q's?

So I’ve been thinking about getting a portable mp3 player like an iPod or Zen.
But before I give up my CD player I was wondering if any of the players out there had a simple drag and drop feature without having to convert your mp3s to mp4 or other formats, i’ve spent so much time ripping my cds to my harddrive i dont want to have to go thru more conversions.

I talked to someone who said there was a utility for iPod that made it into a drag and drop player avoiding apple’s format.

Since I want to use it to tote my whole library around instead of my 9 pound cd booklet I don’t want the stuff to get stuck on the player because steve jobs wants to corner the market and stifle competitors.