I've read no more than 3 Gb, but that was some time ago, before SP2. I'd like to go with 4 Gb, notebook memory is so cheap right now.

Also, what brand do you recommend for notebooks? New Egg has the best deals on Kingston and Crucial going now. For all I know it's all the same, just relabeled, but see there's a difference in latency and a couple of other things that may matter. Here's a link to the type my laptop uses. TIA...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...d&Order=RATING

 

you can run a auto check here http://www.memorygiant.com/ should tell you how much you can use

 

Windows will read up to 4gb memory post SP2. However, not all applications will actually take full advantage of all that memory.

As far as brands, IMO as long as you stay away from the no-name stuff your probably OK. Pretty much all the major brands are good, just get one with the specs you want.

 

Xp Pro sp2 Will handle upt to 4gb, if you want more you will need to step up to XP Pro X64 I have up to 64gb on this before.

 

You can put 4GB in but windows will only recognize 3gb. You might as well get the full 4 gb in case you ever decide to go to a 64 bit operatiing system, and like you said its really cheap right now.