I just got a toshiba satellite A45.. has worked great for me so far. I've used it for around an hour before it dims a bit to conserve the battery (thought I'd broke something at first... I didn't realize why it did it until later) but most of the time I have it somewhere I can plug it in so it's not a big deal. Everything for the wireless is built in so I only had to muddle through setting up a router and now I can surf anywhere in the house.
You'll like XP.. I was surprised when I finally switched. I nursed my old computer along for quite a bit once I had the bugs worked out of 98, didn't think I would like XP at all. No more blue screens
