The Treo 600 box says it has a GPS chip. Can I use it as a GPS receiver?

The short answer is not really.

The GPS chip in the Treo 600 provides "assisted GPS" for E911 services. It also allows location aware services to be provided by the network operator.

Unfortunately, this is NOT the same as a "normal" GPS receiver.

AGPS is essentially half a GPS. It has hardware to "listen" to the GPS satellites, but that's pretty much where it stops.

It works like this:[list=1][*] The network tells the handset an approximate location (the network knows which cell you are connected to).
[*] The handset uses this information to track satellites and capture their transmissions until enough data is received for a fix.
[*] The handset passes the satellite data back to the network (Mobile Location Centre)
[*] The Mobile Location Centre does the heavy lifting of calculating an accurate location from the satellite data.
[*] The location is passed to the requesting entity. This is most likely the emergency services determining where an emergency call is being placed from.[/list=1]

Note that the location may not ever be passed back to the handset, although it can be, to provide location aware services.

Note also, that this means if you don't have network coverage, you can't get a location.

More importantly though, it means your service provider controls access to your location information and therefore they can charge you for it as a value added service.

Finally, even if access were free, and available via your service provider, you probably don't want to use the AGPS for moving map software like Pathaway3 or Mapopolis. The network load, and additional latency involved in splitting the GPS functionality across the network makes it less than desirable for navigation.

If you want to use the Treo 600 with some of the existing GPS software, you can still connect an external GPS via the serial interface.

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