New Laptop - CPU Question

[KC]

My wife wants to me to replace her old Pentium 4 desktop with a new laptop.  She wants a laptop to reduce clutter on her desk rather than for portability.  She also wants at least a 15 inch screen.  She will use the new laptop for surfing the internet and light office applications.  My daughter will also use it to watch streaming videos from Netflix and Youtube.  The question is how much processing power do I need?  Is an Intel i3 CPU sufficient?  What would be the equivalent AMD CPU?

I would also like to get a laptop for as close to $500 as possible, so any recommendations would be much appreciated.

[Laner]

An i3 is more than adequate for the usage you're describing (even a Core 2 Duo or a higher-clocked Atom will give you enough horsepower). 

I'm not familiar enough with AMD's mobile offerings to help you with that part.

[disarm]

pretty much any current laptop will be able to do the things you want with ease, so just pick something in your budget and enjoy!