Yeah, Vista is particularly lethargic on laptops...you gotta make sure you get AT LEAST 2 gig of RAM.
That said, there are a couple of places you can still get laptops with XP...Dell is one, though the selection is limited.
I have: 1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm....DARN!
When I purchased a Dell laptop last last June, for my daughter, I was given the choice of XP or Vista. She chose XP. This time I wasn’t given a choice.
I have found that if you double the recommended RAM to run Vista most of the problems go away.
Since I applied the “rule-of-thumb” I have had no problems with Vista. I have even found some work around for the some of the application incompatibility issues. It seems the key is do all your installations as “System Administrator”. Other colleagues who have done this have gotten some very old applications to run on Vista. (Applications that wouldn't run in XP!) I am not claiming these “findings” are definitive in an engineering sense. It was some “discoveries” that myself and some friends made by just fooling around with Vista. However let me say that RAM is the key ! Pay not attention to what the recommended RAM level is ! Double it, if you order a laptop don't accept the amount of RAM as loaded, add more !
Note this does not make me a Vista fan, its just makes it more tolerable if I have to use it.