After doing much independent research on the subject (and borrowing a friend's laptop for hours on end... a timesaver vs. using the Wii...) I still have questions, and I've found a computer that might be great. The links you supplied were fantastic, sorry about asking for them, but I was dealing with the Wii at the time. In fact, I wrote a reply to your message after you responded, but the connection failed...

I have a laptop in mind, and as this is my first laptop and my first time using SUSE 10.2, I kind of had to puzzle together on notebook paper what precisely I wanted.

The notebook:
ZT Element s10002i - 74
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo ~ 1.8GHZ
SPEC: 1GB of RAM O.O.B., 120 GB HDD, DVD Writer/Reader
VIDEO: nVidia Geforce 8400MG w/256MB dedicated video RAM*
AUDIO: Integrated Realtek ALC 88H*
OTHER: Some tricks, like a webcam, microphone, etc., and no option to have anyhting but Vista installed OOB.

*No specific documentation available detailing performance under SUSE 10.2.

the ZT Element @ newegg

My decision on this notebook in particular was based on the dedicated video memory (to run things like Beryl/Compiz smoothly), the nVidia video card (which has more stable drivers ATM than ATI), the Intel chips (I'm a creature of habit...), and the price. My difficulty is that newegg, and anywhere else I can find this laptop in particular, doesn't have complete system specifications indicating who made what, and what model or version is in the computer, so I can't compare things like the wireless hardware with the compatibility lists available, and since I hope to use the wireless function, the camera, the bluetooth, the microphone, the DVD writer, and a few other things frequently, it's hard for me to settle on anything. I mean, I could always install another distro other than SUSE if it worked better with my hardware, but SUSE is by far my favorite, and I have most experience with Linux operating within it.

New questions:

If I were to get an Intel Dual Core computer, would I still install the x86 version of SUSE? (still not clear on what that actually means [/admitted noob])
Are there really any noticable problems with compatibility of certain programs when running the 64bit version of SUSE? Does Linux run any better/faster under 64bit tech?
Is there any way I can find out what exactly is in the model of laptop I'm buying? Should I look for this stuff or just ignore it for the time being?

Just from reading reviews detailing basic installation, I know that SUSE 10.2 is better equipped to recognize hardware right off the bat during the install, but in the case that YaST doesn't, I know I don't know enough to go through the terminal to troubleshoot and peice it together myself. That's why I'm so hesitant on installing it on untested/unreported hardware.

Thanks for whatever support you can give, I'm excited about the possibilities, but dreading the task of getting things up-and-running.