I was on BTC-e a few minutes before it went down. You could buy BTC at 97.xx and on MT Gox it was in the 102.xx - 103.xx range.
I have never deposit USD to buy BTC and I was trying to do this when the site went down. I am still new to Bitcoins but it seems that the spread between BTC-e and MT Gox was large...is this normal? This could be a reason it is down at the moment.
Bitdigger2013
I wouldn't consider that a large spread, it is usually off by a few dollars. I believe most people blame this on the difficulty/tx fees of getting money onto and off of the seperate exchanges. Could be wrong tho =)