Laptops seem to go up in price the smaller and lighter weight they are, as well as increasing in price if you are really wanting a full blown desktop gaming standard PC in a not really portable laptop.
Often it's about trade off, but if you aren't needing to do flashy graphics stuff, want somethign with a bit of futuer proofing, then I'd be suggesting something with a core duo (mobile) processor, and ideally 1GB of RAM. Fit that around your screen size and your doing well.
A nice compromise on size, 14.1" widescreen, and all the other features seems to be
Dell's Inspiron 640M. You can reduce the price significantly by cutting back on the warranty / support stuff)It's one of those things though, technology and offers change so fast that whatever is a good deal today, might not be so tommorrow.