To some extent, it really depends on what you want to do with the laptop. If you want to go with gaming, then something along the lines of an Area 51 from Alienware, or a Dell XPS may not be a bad idea. If you aren't looking to spend that much money, which would be understandable, just make sure you get something with a halfway decent video card, definitely not integrated graphics. As for AMD or Intel...I am a fanboy of neither, but I have been pretty impressed with the Turion processors in the past. Alternatively, I think Intel has the upper hand at this point in terms of speed and overall performance, although I have not yet experienced AMD's Phenom series. Whatever you decide, don't go less then a new Turion, or a Core 2 Duo for a proc, I would stay away from the Sempron and Celeron series.
I wasn't able to open the link you posted to look at the laptop you chose, but if you want to list some of the spec's as well as the manufacturer, then I can give you a better idea of what I think. In terms of Vista, I have not had good luck with laptops, I have always gotten better battery life out of something running XP. Then again, I did not fully configure Vista when it was installed on my laptop, and my laptop is definitely about 3 years out of date. Properly configured, and running on some decent hardware, then Vista may not be a bad option for laptops.
I'll post back if you have any questions or anything, or if you just want to mention how long this opinionated rant has gone on...