Well I bit the bullet, passed on the HP zt3000 and purchased an Inspiron 8600, here are the specs:

Pentium M 1.4GHZ
WSXGA+ (1680x1050)
512MB DDR (FREE UPGRADE!)
32MB ATI Radeon 9000
40GB
4X DVD+RW/+R (FREE UPGRADE!)
etc...

Once I get it, i'll make sure everything works and then i'll do a clean install of WinXP Prof. Total price was $1500, no rebate hassle aswell which I liked. The free upgrades are what pushed me on this purchase. Maybe once I get it i'll post some pics and mini-review on here.