The Acer Extensa 5620-4801 is a great budget laptop with 3 gigs of RAM but I couldn't handle the bloat of Vista so I downgraded to XP using this guide.

My notes:

• Before getting rid of Vista, make the factory recovery DVD's using the installed software (2 DVD's required) and make a driver backup disk (1 DVD required)
• If you can't slipstream an install disk with the SATA drivers then be sure and change the BIOS setting to IDE and then use this guide to get the ACHI working. The driver I used was the Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller - the 82801 is the correct one. After updating the driver, reboot, F2 into the BIOS and then change the setting to ACHI. Take out any DVD/CD's you may have so it'll boot faster and more reliably.
• Don't install the webcam driver, just let XP install its own generic driver - this could cause a reboot hang
• If you have Mass Storage Device in the device manager, that's the CardR_TI driver for your card reader.
• Drivers link

Bonus: here's a rapidshare download that's an installer that has all of the drivers.  I can verify that it was created using Driver Genius on a 5620-4801 system with all drivers working but I provide no guarantee that it will work (you're on your own) but if you're installing from scratch it can't hurt anything. Just run it after booting into windows with IDE mode set in the BIOS, then after installing change it to AHCI when it reboots.  It may be a good idea to create a system restore point before installing.

My new laptop is now running fast with less bloat and annoyances with XP. I bought mine for $550 (with a $50 rebate) over the tax holiday weekend but the price has since jumped to over $650!