Laptop buying advice

I've been looking at laptops recently and have narrowed it down to one: the Acer AS3003LCi. The main reason is the price. I don't plan to do any gaming or anything on this, just normal apps. It does seem to have a low battery life, though.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=265242

Sempron 3000+
256mb pc2700 (would add another 256)
40 GB HD
15in screen

Price: 600$


The questions:
1) Does anyone have any experience with this laptop?
2) I have heard that Acer is a quality company and has quality laptops, this is true correct?
3) Anyone know of any better deals/laptops out there?

I have an Acer (Travelmate 2700WMLi) and I'm a happy bunny. My mate was looking at the Aspire 3000 series laptops last week, and almost bought one, but ended up buying a 1-month old Acer 8101wmli off eBay for the same price. I'd recommend them to anyone.

The Aspire 3000 series is a good-value desktop replacement notebook. Decent processor, cheaply upgradeable memory, decent screen etc. The battery life is not great, but I use mine plugged in most of the time anyway. Get an external USB2 drive if you want extra storage.