thanks, wooddiy. Switching to win 7 is an option. Retail win 7 is rather expensive and it seems making more sense to get a new laptop with win 7.
frys.com has Acer AS5253-BZ893 for $360 with win 7 home 64. Not sure whether I can use the win 7 from acer on my T61. Please let me know if there are other options to get win 7. Another option I am thinking is to run linux on T61, though most of current apps will not run on linux.