Do not buy a laptop for gaming. That's all the advice you need.
I know its out of your price range, but I just got a souped up Studio 15 and it runs AH on max textures with a 1080p screen great. I spend 900 something on it but I'm sure you could find something for cheaper.With that lappy I'd get 4GB of RAM so it's dual channel, and the first Core 2 Duo you can get...integrated graphics?