you are going to spend a LOT of money on a good zoom lens. A SLR will require a lens appropriate for whatever you are shooting and they are very expensive.
You can get some fairly impressive point and shoots w/ some pretty damn good zoom these days. If you aren’t going to get in to the photography, it’s really a waste to drop a ton of the camera. Most photographers can take better pictures w/ a 2MP point and shoot than some guy with his shiney new 8MP DSLR.
And just for reference, DSLRs do “optical zoom”, that’s the only kind they usually do. (Oldschool SLRs only do “optical zoom”) A point and shoot will list an equivalent lens in it’s specs for you to compare with.