I'd add that if you want to be closer to the Windows XP visual layout, try PC Linux OS.
Their web site:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/You still can do the USB trick (or a CD) 'live' boot - you may need to change a setting in the laptop bios.
With all live distributions (distros) do bear in mind that they run
much slower than a full install, but the main thing is they give you a no-damage way of checking they will work on a particular machine.
If you have the time, try several different distros to see which you like best. I've found the ones based on the KDE desktop like PC Linux OS tend to be better suited to Windows refugees. Those with the Xfce window manager have a very minimalist look-and-feel and are usually best for machines with older CPUs and restricted memory.
Whatever you go for, you will usually find there are a lot of usability tweaks yiou can make that will give you a much closer fit to your ideal workflow.
Hope that helps