Personally? The best pC out there right now is a MacBook Pro with XP. You can get an Intel Mac (probably 2.4 Duo, 2gb upgradable to 4) used for under $1k and XP grows on trees. The graphics are really the only concern (Mac still hasn't figured out graphics cards yet).
The dv9700t is a decent machine, and it should do the trick. I doubt you'll see people not supporting XP any time soon. Vista is a failure.
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