Laptop Purchasing Questions

Hello there, everyone. I took a look through this forum to see if there was anything that would be able to answer my questions, and though I did have a few answered, there are a few more specific to my situation questions I'd like to ask. If I'm shooting in the wrong area, or this needs to be closed for whatever other reason, then by all means please do so.

I'm no slouch when it comes to computers, but the realm of Laptops is one I have very little knowledge about. I've done some reading around different forums, but it becomes difficult to discern what's truth with such inpersonal sources. Since many of you will have first hand accounts and knowledge, I'd gladly take much of what you fellows have to say over corporate webpages.

Anyways, I'm in the market for a lap top. I'm actually looking to replace my desktop, more or less, and while travel and battery life aren't all that important to me, the proposed aspect of being able to move the computer much easier in the rare occassions that I need to is my main motivation. However, I do play my share of PC games, so gaming is rather important to me. And though I do know that Laptops can't really match PCs for high end gaming, I don't exacly have a high end PC currently, so it evens out. What I don't want, however, is to get a laptop that is currently weaker than my PC. It's not the weakest of machines, but it's definitely not the best.

I built the machine myself, in the past, but I was rather stingy with my money, and bought cheaper hardware from unknown manufacturers. The difference in quality shows, and it's not something I wish to have happen again. Anyways, here are my PC's specs:

Hard Drive: 50GB 5200RPM
RAM: 768MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (Two sticks: 512 and 256)
Processor: Pentium 4, 3.0Ghz 1MB L2 Cache
Video Card: Radeon 9800 XT 256MB Manufacturer: GECUBE

I'm not looking to spend much more than $2000 (And preferably less), but I don't know how practical that is for what I'm looking for.

I guess what I need to know, really, is what are trusted and proven companies for laptops? I've no love for Dell, nor HP's PCs, but know nothing of their lap tops. As for the alternatives, well, I guess I don't know all that many.

If anyone has any recommendations to share with me, that'd be great. Thanks in advance.

Jam it back in, in the dark.