I think that you should really evaluate your need for a laptop at all.
Every feature you could possibly imagine your ideal laptop having is better and cheaper in a desktop system.
Unless you absolutely NEED a laptop, stay away. Repairs and parts are easily two to three times the price.
That's my first piece of advice.
Second, I have a compaq armada m700 (700mhz p3/128mb/dvd/20gig) given to me by my employer. It is small, light, powerful enough for everything you mentioned and even those you excluded, and EXTREMELY durable...believe me, i treat it worse then a rental car
They're a few years old now and were almost exclusively business class machines. I suspect you could get one for a song through a liquidator or at auction.
-bear