laptop recommendation Options

[sundowni]

I am trying to put a system of Voice Rec together so that my family and I can communicate with our deaf 89 year old father-in-law. At present we try to include him in our conversations by hand writing messages and notes to him on a dry erase chalk board.
I do understand that with voice recognition we will not be able to 'converse' in the sense of multiple family members talking to him at one time but most anything will be better than what we now have and to have one persons' voice transcribed for him to read would make his life much more enjoyable.
I think we would like to use 'Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred', installed on a laptop computer. After reading a lot of forum postings I understand the importance of a fast cpu and adequate ram as well as a USB mike.
The last laptop I bought was a refurbished Compaq Presario 2100 with 512 mb of ram, a AMD 2120 processor and XP sp2. I have read on this forum that in 2001 Compaq was not a computer of choice for at least one knowledgeable contributer. Is this still a brand to shy away from? Is a computer similar to what I bought with an increase in the ram to 1 gig enough or should I look to different parameters? Would I be better advised to go with a different brand?
I don't want to waste money by over buying but I do want to make sure I put a system together that will not disappoint my father-in-law.