Have you read all the posts about some of your issues at X1000forums.com ???
This is the dedicated forum for the HPZT3000 series, Compaq X1000 series and business HPnx7000 series.
Many people there have installed the Hitachi 60gb 7200rpm hard drive themselves (you can buy it for under $200 now at Newegg, Dell, etc).
People that want this option custom order the smallest 4200rpm hard drive option from HP and then order the Hitachi hard drive and install it in the notebook (only moving the proprietary connector from the old hard drive to the new Hitachi hard drive is needed. There are even posts on how to best load software, etc on the hard drive, etc.
The ZT3000/X1000 has recently added the HP Briteview LCD option for the XGA resolution, has added a multiformat DVD burner option in 2 speeds (previously DVD burner was only DVD + which does not play in nearly all consumer DVD players -- it will play in some Sonys).
You cannot get above 64mb Dedicated video RAM but most notebooks don't go above this. You can get the Dell 8600 with both the ATI 9700 128mb dedicated video RAM but at the expense of more weight (6.9 pounds versus 6.5), worse case construction and integrity and a much worse keyboard feel. There are comparison posts recently for the ZT3000 versus the Dell 8600 in the general topics area at X1000forums.com.
If you can find an Acer 2000 series (Acer 2025 was out but it seems to be hard to find right now) it built at the same Chinese manufacturer (Compal) as the ZT3000/X1000 and has the 128mb Dedicated video RAM option.
The new Alviso Centrino chipset/Sonoma Centrino update will not occur until sometime in 2005. It has been delayed by Intel as well as many of their other chip updates. This will entail a faster bus speed (400mhz right now) a faster RAM speed (PC2700 right now) but it will still use the Dothan Pentium M Processors that are in the notebook right now.
Their may never be a 128mb dedicated video RAM option on this notebook but it may happen later.
But the hard drive swap can be done right now. The 5400rpm hard drive option is available on HP and the Hitachi 7200 is an improvement but not by as much over the 5400 as the 5400 over the 4200 rpm speed is.