Well, first of all, I don't have much clues either, but you can be quiet sure that Linux will at least run in some way on any laptop nowadays
However, there are basically 2 remaining common issues: The wifi and the webcam. I wouldn't bother about the graphics, the Intel 4500 Chip should be supported well in all recent distros. The wireless driver situation is quiet good by now, still, I couldn't figure out which chip the laptop used by some quick googeling, but drivers for most chips are within kernel. The webcam, well support has increased as well. Yes, that's very vague.
However, I could find a
forum entry (translation from greek) where someone states
Everything fine
Successfully installed:
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x64 Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x64
and Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64
(64bit is only necessary with >= 4GiB of Ram)I wouldn't be too concerned about buying Linux compatible laptops today, there won't be any major issues, and if there are they usually can be solved someway.
Still, it would be helpful if someone who actually possesses this or a similar laptop could give a statement, so these are just my 2ct.