I wouldn't throw Intel under the bus. You're problems are most likely memory and/or video chip based.
No doubt!!! Last month I bought a HP pavillion dv1270us for my wife.. Only fair since I've spent a boatload
of cash on game stuff in the last year... its a 17inch 1440x900res, P8600 2.4Ghz 1066fsb, 4gig of DDR2 800,
320gig HD, 9600M GT Dedicated gfx card, BluRay Multidisc.... eSATA port, HDMI output, Gigabit LAN...
$ 1049 at Newegg brand new, no refurb! And its upgradable too!!!
It came with Vista Ultimate 64 and all the HP bloatware, but we took it to a good computer guy and he trimmed
all the useless crap away, and tweaked it just a little.. Man, that sucker works GOOD!!! Boots fast, plays Bluerays
on our HDTV, Does everything we throw at it no prob!!! And yes I tested the game on it, no probs!!!
LOL, no she doesn't play AHII....! I was just curious if it would run the new version.. It does, just fine!!!
I think it was a great deal, and She's happy as hell with it too!!!
RC