I did a search and did not find what I was looking for.

Say I purchase my domain name at godaddy, and host with ECD.

Say I have this for a page: basedirectory/games/index.html

Will the domain automatically call this to the adress bar: www.mydomain.com/games/index.html and the status bar?

Is this done automatically, or will I have to configure thigs for this to happen?

Also, should I purchase the domain before setting up a hosting account, or does it matter?

It wil;l happen if the domain has beenn transfered i nyour hosts DNS Servers and ita configed that thier end.

You can point your domain name wherever you want. In your example, if the domain was setup to point to basedirectory, then yes basedirectory/games/index.html would translate into www.mydomain.com/games/index.html.

A lot of hosts will register a domain name for you with your hosting package. Some do this for "free" others include this as part of the setup charge. I'd suggest finding your host first, then deciding if it's a better deal for you to register the domain yourself first, or through the host. Just watch out for the few hosts that have clauses in their TOS. stating that you have to remain a customer for X amount of time in order to keep the domain. You should ALWAYS be the registrant of the domain name. The only place a host should appear in your registration, is possibly the technical contact.

-Dan