I got a Toshiba myself, Satelite 300D something something. It was about 600 bucks, and does the job with "regular" games (it runs Oblivion, at least). However, it doesn't support my USB audio interface properly (Native Instruments Rig Kontrol), apparently that's a known problem with most Toshiba laptops.
If she's just going to use it for "regular" tasks, I don't think you can go wrong with any choice, really.