I just got an HP Pavilion dv4000 series (US) notebook for my significant other. It's close in spec to yours:
2 GHz Pentium, 15.4" widescreen, 1 GB memory, ATI x700 graphics card, 80 GB HDD.

Works pretty well, haven't had any problems with it. Runs MTW fine, which is all I care about. I haven't tried stressing it with newer games, and all she does with it is surf the web, watch DVDs, and mess around with photoshop. It's got some nice touches to it, and seems to be built well. I guess it really depends on what you need.