jerry,

The ibm thinkpad is only a 486 with a 25 MHz processor and 125 MB hard
drive and 4 MB RAM. I believe it only comes with Windows 3.1, which
does not run many programs these days. Here are some systems I
recommend for your price range that are similar to the ones you listed.
The thinkpad T41 is 1.6 ghz, which is roughly 64 times faster and has
roughly 320 times the hard drive space:

ibm thinkpad T41 1.6 GHz Pentium-M, 512 MB RAM, at newegg.com for $1805
plus shipping
hp pavilion ZT3380US - 1.7 GHz Intel Centrino Pentium M, 512 MB RAM at
buy.com for $1900
compaq presario 3050US - 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 Processor, 512 MB RAM, at
datavisioncomputer.com for $1918

-jonathan wolfson