I just picked up a used iPhone 3g with firmware version 2.0.2. I popped my AT&T non-iphone sim in and all works well.
My problem is that I cannot download any free apps from the App Store because it has the previous owners account/email in there and I don't know his password.
Is it possible to download/install iTunes and get an account of my own and sync that to the phone without it locking me out of the phone since I do not have an official iphone sim card?
All you should have to do is... open iTunes, login to your apple account, sync the phone to your account. Then it will change the account on the phone.