I'm looking for a notebook...

[NES_DS]

I think I'm going to save some money and by May I'll have buy me a $300-$450 notebook. I'm leaning toward the compaq/hp line up.

I want intergrated WLAN(B/G), a card reader(SD and memory stick), and a 2 hour battery life. I don't care about RAM as long as I have 256MB, I'll buy more later. All I plan to do on it is some very-very-light gaming (Win95-98 games), surfing, and watching DVDs.

I don't want a P4, I want something that uses a little less juice. What's the best CPU for long battery life?

Also what's this centrino technolgy? I know it's a CPU, but is it intel's own version of intergrated WLAN?

[bigH2O]

Centrino is okay for what you're describing. It offers integrated wireless, low power (long battery life), but is also sort of slow. Light, light gaming, may be possible, but it's really more designed for business applications like word processing.

If you're planning on basically using this machine on the airplane between hops to your destination, then it's probably what you need. If you are going to be close to a power outlet most of the time, then I'd consider a beefier system.