Just a word of caution. I thought I'd upgrade my laptop this weekend, I discovered that many of the Intel chips that are shipping with new laptops in the $800 and under range do not support virtualization. The bad news is if it doesn't support virtualization you cannot run XP mode. So, later today I'm taking back the 2nd laptop I purchased at Best Buy. IF I want to stick with Windows 7-64 bit, I'll have to place a special order at the store and spend close to $1000. Then I'm faced with the dilemma should I just spend a couple hundered more and move to a MacBook.
FYI, here's a link to the chipsets that will or will not run virtualization.
http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx