While working on patch 1.0.4, we came up with all sorts of ideas for ways to improve Diablo III. Some of them you’ve probably already seen, such as the general systems changes, the awesome buffs for Legendaries, and the improvements we’re making to the barbarian, demon hunter, monk, witch doctor, and wizard. The entire team really banded together to get as much into this patch as possible, and one of the exciting changes I’d like to tell you about today is called the Paragon system.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6968517/
I picked D3 up again the other day - frustration level has been removed! and am making progress, making a bit of money and actually finding things that are useful.
Paragon levels are for magic and gold find. You still stay at max lvl 60 for char but para is a separate system. To get to lvl 100 paragon would mean about as much time as it took to get to lvl 100 on a character in D2.