I used to use a Compaq Armada M700 laptop. Red Hat Linux 7-9 ran really well on it. Here are some of the things I had to remember when I was installing Linux on it.

During installation, choose the following:

• Mouse: generic 3 button PS/2 mouse
• Video card: ATI Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2X
• Monitor: Compaq TFT (Thin Film Transitor)
• Color depth & resolution: True Color @ 1024 X 768

Source: "Linux (Red Hat 7.0+) Installation on the Compaq Armada E500 and Armada M700"
http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/linux/armada-howto.html

Get the modem working

Get the driver from Lucent (currently ltmodem-5.78e) at http://walbran.org/sean/linux/stodolsk/

Source: "Linux (Red Hat 7.0+) Installation on the Compaq Armada E500 and Armada M700"
http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/linux/armada-howto.html

Use hdparm to speed up buffered disk reads

As root, pico /etc/sysconfig/harddisks

USE_DMA=1
MULTIPLE_IO=16
EIDE_32BIT=1
LOOKAHEAD=1
EXTRA_PARMS= hdparm ?u1 /dev/hda

Source: "Linux (Red Hat 7.0+) Installation on the Compaq Armada E500 and Armada M700"
http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/linux/armada-howto.html