Well, it is "guaranteed" since mark192 says he is using windows XP and not necessarily looking for portability.
On the other hand, neik_e mentions portability problems which is true (+using a system cmd is costly) However, with careless use of i/o functions (buffer problems), mostly because of the mistakes that inexperienced programmers make, program might not halt. This does not happen with system "pause". This is the second reason why it is guaranteed.
So, how bad it is, it might become handy all of a sudden.