My AVG has always been good to me. Coupled with Webroot Spy Sweeper they are an unbeatable team. <3 Also, Zone Alarm is good freeware firewall.
Had Antivir for a while now and its going well. Only problem are the annoying updates which alt+tab you out of games. Feel like destroying it just for that at times. +1 on the Symantec Corp edition. Works well and rarely bugs you.
Avast is pretty good but the interface is garbage D; am i playing a cd or what? personally i use nothing ;o but i wouldn't recommend that to the average user tho ;o Havnt seen anything that will stop that antivirus 2008 poop. Anyone see that one yet? I work in pc repair and that one has been popping up alot lately.
Set your daily update to a time when you know you will be either off the computer, or at least not gaming (I set it to a time when I should be asleep). Set it to start if the job has been missed. It won't stop the popup, but it will mean that the popup will not disturb you while gaming.