Mostly I use the central point and only use the outer points when either using the centre point and recomposing isn't practical (eg on a tripod) or there is unlikely to be time to recompose. Pictures I took when the rafts were much closer to the shore were far more correctly focused though again the AF occasionaly picked a point closer than I wanted...

On the other hand a couple of weekends back I was photographing windsurfers and for that I most definitely stuck with the centre AF. Trying to use multiple points just allowed the camera to focus anywhere it liked and rarely was that the subject....

At Focus I did get to have a play with the D3 using all 51 focus zones and dynamic area AF and I must say it seemed near infallible even in the low light of the hall though mostly the subjects were quite close. Distant moving objects may have been a bit more tricky...

[cynic] Because it sells cameras?... [/cynic]

There is something to be said for multiple focus zones provided they are sufficiently sensitive and positioned well. The D3 sytem seems to work well and the 45 zone system that Canon had on the EOS3 (and 1V as well IIRC) was quite effective but I don't think they are essential in many cases. My 20D has 9 points and selecting the one I want is much slower than with my 3 point D30 and positively pedestrian compared to the one point available on my EOS600 bodies... Like I said in certain situations more points can be a benefit, in others they're just a pain in the bum...