Coming from a 7 yo laptop anything you buy will seem blindingly fast.

Couple points to look for is the 64 bit Windows 7, at least 4GB ram and a discrete graphics card which will make you compatible well into the future.

Now is a good time to be looking especially 12/31 as it's the last hurrah for 2009. Dell in particular last year had a special MS Office ultimate + MS Project for like $99 with a new laptop.

Take a look at www.techbargains.com for those specials that expire quick.