Windows Vista is coming out at the end of January to replace Windows XP.
This means there are a lot of good deals at the moment in the lull before Vista arrives (plus it is post Christmas)
To be honest ANY current laptop would be good enough for what she wants to do.
I have bought Dell a few times and they have always been reliable and I got a delivery in a few days.
They only sell over the web:
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx ?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs