If it was me I would NOT wait. I would use all my savings and max out all my high intrest credit and get the best, spare no expense, already obsolete HDMI 1.1 reciever money can buy. Then next year when I'm just catching up with the credit I can do it all over again!
HD video and sound are way over rated just ask some of the "A/Vholics" around here (DVD is plenty good).
You should just keep what you have now. If you have anything workable you should be set to wait for the CE people to get their act together. I need to upgrade also but they will not get one penny from me until they produce something with good compatibility and reasonable shelf life. Witch is not yet.
But to answer your question. If you want to transfer the signal digitally of the new high resolution surround formats on HD/BLU the reciever needs HDMI 1.3 to function with the audio.