They have some nice laptops at Staples right now. My neighbour bought a Toshiba from them this week and got a superb deal.
Here are two that I'd look at:
Sony Vaio (I have a VAIO and absolutely love it. Thinnest laptop ever, light weight, beautiful design. Just go and look at it. Clearance right now):
Click here
Toshiba Satellite A200-AH6 (has 1GB of ram, but Staples also sells the model up which has 2GB. Nice machine).
Click here
Both have Intel Core Duo. The Toshiba is faster (2.0GHz).