For the most part, it's not which Antivirus program you have, but rather how up-to-date it is. Norton and McAffee are both very good, but AVG and Avast which are free will do the job just as well.
More important than a good anti-virus program however, is safe computing pracice. I've never gotten a virus on my computer, even for the several years at a time that I didn't have any antivirus software. Generally the things to avoid are:
1) Running pirated software, especially those downloaded from Peer To Peer sites like Bittorrent or LimeWire. It's not uncommon for pirates to either accidentally or intentionally put viruses into software, and then upload it to these sites. Because of the nature of these sites, it's very difficult to remove them once someone notices that they're infected.
2) Opening executable attachments from people you don't know, or which have suspicious titles or verbage. If someone sends you a Word document every day and writes a three-paragraph description in the text of the email, but on Tuesday, you get their attachment and the email just says "Here's the file you wanted.", there's a good chance that it's infected. Treat the file very carefully.
3) Read those warnings your computer gives you. When you run a Word or Excel file that's just supposed to be a static report that some's giving you, and your copy of Word says "This file is trying to execute code that could be dangerous", believe it, and disallow the Macros until you can confirm with the sender that there is something that should be running.
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