Intel Atom Verse Pentium 4

Hey, I have an old laptop (4+ years) that runs a P4 2.8Ghz CPU. Lately I've found that it seems to be dying, and is struggling to run simple applications. I've replaced the ram, but it's still lags. I think the CPU isn't working at full capacity or something, and it gets very hot very fast. Anyways, I'm thinking of getting a very cheap, temporary replacement, so here's my question. What would be the difference in performance between a P4 2.8Ghz, and an Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz running in a netbook . Would the lower Ghz, but newer cpu run faster than the old P4? Or should I try and keep my laptop going. All I'm looking at running is your basic MS office programs, PDF editor, and skype/msn video and voice chat. Will a netbook be able to handle it? I'm not such a fan of doing video calls on a 8inch screen, but I'd look for one with vga out to my tv.

Thanks