Assuming you are running windows, I reccomend 'Dbpoweramp'. Free download, can automatically convert CDs too. Good bitrates. Just a note on the codec used (LAME), can't do intensity stereo, so avoid joint stereo encoding in VBR or below 112kbps.
Can also convert to OGG (great for a lossy format), WMA, etc.
Or for those who have a Vaio Portable Player, use Sony Sonicstage... guess what I got for Christmas
I think Winamp also does CD to MP3, it is free too. WMA is slightly (and I mean slightly) superior to MP3 at any given bitrate, and most portable music players can use MP3 and WMA. So you may as well use Windows Media Player if you already have it.
One important feature to look for, which is probably on all software now, is that it can utilise the CDDB database. This means it will automatically give all the tracks the correct name by automatically looking up the CD on a big internet database.