On A Netbook: Asus, 1 Gig, XP vs. Hp, 2 Gigs, W7.

Not really. You're speaking magic to me. Expelliarmus? No but really, I don't know what (2) means.

Uhhh. You can set up 2 logins on a computer and run MS at the same time on both of them. That's what I mean. It's probably against ToS but they don't do anything against it.

ah, i see. well as with most operating systems these days you can have two users, not sure about the ram requirements for two instances of MS though.

2. have owned an asus eee701, (linux). the brand was good but can't compare your other measures since didn't game on it (4GB SSD, and MS doesn't run on linux). my super-coder friend used the eee901 and to my knowledge can run WoW on it. i think he uses kubuntu there. not really comparable sorry. agree with earlier post that heating IS an issue for eee701 at least.
edit: the asus eee701 started the netbook "trend" of 2007, if that gives you an idea of the brand. yes, hp is big, but i'm not sure it's the leader of the netbook market.

hope i can translate my post here:

- EEE701: am talking about the asus eee701 because it is the cheapest netbook i know of, and it's also the one asus is most famous for - possibly the most well-known netbook. bought mine for NZ$300. i think when the store assistant is talking about a $250 netbook, i don't think it could be anything but an eee701 - i could be wrong.

- COMPARISON: MS doesn't run on linux, thus i did not test MS on my eee701, thus did not test ht/zakum etc. also, you are not looking at the linux version anyway, so my great experience of the eee701 is not necessarily relevant for you. however, i can vouch for the brand and for what i think is the model (if not XP on this model).

- SSD: check whether the netbook has a hard drive or ssd (solid state drive, the kind of thing you have in USB sticks). my eee701 had 4GB SSD. this means there was 4GB of disk space (MS takes 1-2GB to install last time i checked); also, just like i wouldn't recommend running MS off a USB stick, i wouldn't recommend running MS off a SSD drive. however, recent versions/the XP version might have a hard drive. or, you might not be looking at the eee701 in the first place, in which case this wouldn't matter.
edit: the SSD issue is probably not specifically relevant to MS. maybe i'm a bit biased because my SSD corrupted on me at 10 months old, and i generally try not to run heavy programs on SSD anyway. also, just making general netbook observations.

- EEE901: i'm talking about the asus eee901 because it's a netbook, and it's been tested with a high-end graphical MMORPG - just not by me. Friend also uses a non-XP operating system so performance might be different for you.

- HEATING: agree with above posts. heating for the eee701 (not sure about 901) is an issue. different netbooks have different heating issues, but for the eee701 it is definitely a major issue. it personally didn't bother me, but it might bother you.