nuclueless

Hi,
I am looking at Toshiba’s Satellite Pro A300D-13E and Satellite A300D-140 with similar specs, mainly hoping for XP program compatibility with my collection of ancient simple utilities and games, and Office/Word 2000, hence quite interested in “Vista with Windows XP downgrade”, but what does this really mean, please?

Although the 140 looks as if it might be a bit quicker than 13E for games, what I would like to ask is whether its (ATI Radeon 3100) is better than the 13E’s (ATI Radeon X1250). I don't think I need 13E's blue ray

- and whether Toshiba 140 would be nearly? as good for games with (AMD Turion DUAL Core ZM-8- 2.1 GHz and ATI Radeon 3100 ‘up to 1,407 MB total available graphics with 3 GB system memory shared) , as the popular but £100 cheaper (Acer Aspire 5920 with Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS)

- If the results may be similar I would prefer an XP option for now if reversion to Visa is really feasible, and in case it should become necessary in future

Advice about other alternatives would also be appreciated

1. Budget: £550
2. Screen: 15” or 12”
3. Widescreen: not needed
4. Brands: Prefer mainstream presently wondering
about Toshiba A300 and Acer Aspire 5920
5. Mobility: Not important, mainly for home use
6. Durability: as for mobility above, but reliable would be nice!
7. Multitasking: Not important
8. Gaming: yes, games from last 4 years e.g. guild wars, Rome and a
few Win98 ones, which work on XP
9. Calculations: No
10. Storage: 80GB free, after essential OS etc. would be enough
11. Optical Media: Yes, DVDs
12. Operating System: “Vista with Windows XP downgrade” looks
interesting (as on some Toshibas)
13. Location: UK