What is causing the confusion here is that any laptop new enough to have shipped with Win7 should have come with a SATA drive, but that is an assumption, and you know what they say about making assumptions. Solid State SSD SATA drives are faster than both non SSD SATA and IDE.
I would try to replace the drive in your existing WIN7 laptop with a new SSD drive (if indeed the existing interface is SATA), unless the system has other problems.
Sorry, I missed the other issues with your current system..
VAIOs after 2003 came with SATA and not IDE.
I should also mention that Sony went out of the computer business a couple years ago and that also makes it difficult to correctly repair his laptop. The power supply and battery charging circuit was always a weak link on VAIOs.