MAX II CPLDs are still valid for new designs. The new MAX V devices don't have too many advantages, so I would guess both products will be around for a while.
The MAX II PCI Development Kit would be ok for your development. It has a breakout header (Santa Cruz header) which probably has enough pins for your requirements.
The kit is around $150, but it comes with an Altera USB-Blaster (which is $300), so its a good deal :)
One caveat: MAX II Flash is rated for 100 programming cycles - that is not a typo. I have a MAX II PCI kit that stopped working ... I suspect I exceeded programming it by over 100x.
If you just want to test your HDL code, then you might want to buy a Terasic DE0-nano instead. I typically test on an FPGA development kit, even if I target a MAX II CPLD. So long as the synthesis passes timing, it will work fine in hardware.
Cheers,
Dave
