Question from a camera novice [View All]

I'm of the just point and shoot camp. I don't know anything about iso or any of that stuff. I just like taking pictures of my kids and pets. :D

So, I've been using a HP 5mp camera. It has a 3x optical zoom and an additional 5x digital zoom. I know the digital zoom works by just increasing the size of the pixels. I don't use it much because the pictures tend to get grainy looking. Now, I've just purchased a 10mp camera. It also has a 3x optical zoom and digital zoom.

My question is, with the higher megapixel camera, will I still get the grainy look when I use the digital zoom? My novice thinking is that since there are more megapixels to work with, hopefully I'll still end up with some nice pictures even when I have the use the digital zoom to get in close enough.

Does this even make sense? :D

Thanks for any help and/or tips and pointers.