Hawks go Caw
Smash Ace
If a lot of what you heard came from these forums then it's not too surprising that you have a negative outlook on Peach. I haven't played it either, but to completely abandon a character so soon seems melodramatic to me.For me specifically, it's not if she's nerfed or not. It's how playable she is. For example, my second character in Melee is Bowser (yes Peach, then Bowser. I'm weird). He was tough to use, but at least he could at least do some stuff: kind of combo, wonderful power, amazing edge-guard game. Many of Peach's current moves look kinda useless.
Smashes:
Foward and Up smash are good. I guess they should be used as kill moves. Down smash is useless. From what I hear, I probably just won't use it in matches. It's gonna be tough to go from a "D-smash to your heart's content" mindset to a "Stay away from D-smash at all costs" mindset.
Tilts:
I hear ftilt is better. Utilt has more range, but apparently it's still situational, since if the person is next to you it won't hit them
jab:
too much knockback to combo, not enough to kill or anything
Specials:
up-b is slow. turnips are weaker and disappear. side b got slight buffs, but still seems like a situational move. Toad got some buffs, but counter moves get too predictable if used often.
throws:
No combos, not enough good knockback
It seems like they majorly nerfed all of her good melee attacks, and buffed some of the average ones, but not enough that they make up for her nerfs.
The thing is, that's all just what I've heard and seen. I have yet to experience Brawl for myself. However, if all of this is true, Peach seems to have been nerfed to death, and I will most likely switch.
Up B got slower but it has more reach . . . and it kills now. Buffs outweigh nerfs there in my opinion.
Turnips don't disappear. I don't know where you heard that from. http://youtube.com/watch?v=zOAObEfrovU There's a video. Around 50 seconds, the turnip clearly hits the opponent and bounces back.
Counters are predictable when used too often . . . but so is every other move.
D-Smash does more than 5% . . . . Go to the video again. Around 1:50, you see him connect a d-smash for 11% then again at 1:55-ish for 10%. It's a lot weaker now, but it's not as weak as other people may have said. Even if it wasn't weakened, because of the new gameplay system you wouldn't be able to go d-smash happy anyway since it would diminish in strength over time. And that goes for all characters/moves.
From what I heard, U-tilt misses short characters but can still hit regular characters standing. But even if it does miss grounded characters, it's still not really "situational" to the point of being impractical since it's not uncommon for an opponent to be in the air above you. It's just more of an anti-air move in that case.