Help me with finding a decent laptop please :)

I'm going to use the questions from the FAQ. And I am looking for an older computer, and have been searching on ebay. I have taken a liking to the old dell D600/D610s since I have heard that they are durable machines. If someone can think of any older laptops that are along that line, please let me know. It just needs to run XP decently. I mean barebones stuff here guys Need some help with different models because I have never really been into laptops before, and I don't need a 1000 dollar laptop that I won't do anything with(I have my desktop for any gaming/rendering work)

1_What is your budget?
Low. Lowest of the low. Around 100 to maybe 250. I know. I'm broke.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
12"+ screen

3_What screen resolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/display_resolution do you want?
Preferrably WXGA(1280x800)

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskt [...] t_computer laptop?
Portable

5_How much battery life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery do you need?
As much as possible.. at least 2 hours

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Maybe some D2, nothing else though

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_editing , surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
Maybe some music

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
20gb or so, if that

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
ebay?

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
I'll keep it for a while. But I won't need a lot of power out of it.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
long battery life, xp or no os at all, cheap cheap cheap, older (1ghz clock speed is fine with me), maybe 256-512mbs of ram

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
i dont care about brand names, as long as the laptop is durable

13_What country do you live in?
united states of america

Well, can you suggest a decent laptop along the same line as the D600 series? By that I mean an older laptop that had good reviews, has decent specs(700mhz+, 256mb+ ram, any video chipset, and 10gb+ hdd) and is durable? Of course I can save the money up, but I just wanted to see if anyone could think of any cheap-o, yet decent, laptop

The OS doesn't really matter, I plan on installing some form of linux anyway, which is why I have been looking for laptops without an OS installed. My biggest issue is just not knowing what laptop models to search around for deals on.