Looking for a small cheap laptop to run linux on

1. What is your budget?
under $250

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I could go for anything, but I'd like something 13" or less

3. What screen resolution do you want?
WXGA or better

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
portable (though I'll go for a desktop replacement if portable is unrealistic)

5. How much battery life do you need?
3 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)?
I might play some 2D games, the occasional browser game, maybe running Fallout in WINE

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
General internetting, word processing, some programming (Python, HTML), running Guitarix

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
80GB or more (I can always upgrade this later)

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
A few years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Don't really need any

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've been thinking an older Thinkpad would be good, but I'm open to other options as long as they're well put together

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
That's about it. I know I won't be finding any beasts in this price range, but beyond my budget here I'll definitely be maxing the RAM in whatever I get. Hardware compatibility is important as I'll be running Linux; probably Linux Mint for now, but I do occasionally get bored and start rapidly moving from distro to distro