I have a similar laptop with an almost identical setup, except a slightly smaller hard disk (40Gb in total IIRC) and it has a Centrino 1.3 Ghz (runs at 2.1+ Ghz approximately). We run Red Hat 9 at uni and one of the lecturers gives out RH9 cds that setup our machines the same as the ones in our department so we have the same tools available (mainly the Java SDK, but some other bits and bobs that don't come as standard with RH9).

I got a discount because I'm a student.