So far I have been looking at Lenovo ThinkPads.
I really liked the W500. I'm in India, and its hard to find prices online. They list prices for only a few laptops. I don't have a fixed budget, and I'll go in for any brand if I truly love the specs, especially the display res.

Right now I'm thinking of Lenovo 3000 (G410, Y410) and Lenovo W500.
Theses are both on the extreme low and high end.

If you know of any low to mid range laptops with at least 1400x1200 res, DVD recorder, reasonable dual core with 1-2 GB ram, GL acceleration(optional). Wifi and gigabit ether are needed

Of course and suggestions or comments are welcome.

Thank you, members.

Just a few general remarks
Most Linux distros has a database about supported hardware , check if you,re hardware is supported by the distro or distros you are going to use.
If it is possible in a laptop see that there are Free PCI slot it can be handy to have them.

You can look here for supported models: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:Models

Like they say on this page: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:Lenovo_3000 "The ACPI and EC firmware are completely incompatible with ThinkPads, and ibm-acpi/thinkpad-acpi will not support it. The Lenovo 3000 are not ThinkPads."

Oh, and don't get a model with a dim samsung panel, but make sure to get the LG/Phillips one. Google around for t61 panel problems, especially with WSXGA and WUXGA. I had to swap the panel on my t61p to an LG one as the samsung was unusable (although lenovo said it complied to their quality standards or what ever).

I want to spend Rs. 32000 ($800) plus a little extra for extended warranty. Do you know any models, of any make, I can buy? Free extended warranty would be great, or a 15% discount. Or even an allowance of Rs. 5000 for accessories. I wanted to buy a thinkpad, but they are damn expensive, and yes you are right the 3000 Y series are not thinkpads, I was mislead, from the website. I picked out a model, and now I am very happy I didn't 'swipe the credit card' before considering other options.

My new requirements have been cut far down. They are either a 'Intel Core 2 Duo' or the AMD equivalent. With at least 1GB RAM. And a dual layer DVD burner.

the above plus some misc items, such as an Optical Mouse, Blank DVDs, Pen Drive, Ethernet Cable, Microphone, Headphones, and of course a MP3 player with rechargeable batteries.

Any comments? Please consider that I am in India. How much should I spend on each item in the list above? If you can suggest any models of any brand that I should buy or consider, please do. What would you buy?

Forgot, I need support for WiFi 802.11 b/g (a is optional)