M-Audio Dell Firewire Conundrum HELP!!!

[Hammer v2]

HEy Guys. I NEED SOME ADVICE.

I am currently running an m-audio firewire audiophile out of my old trusty compaq notebook (sempron 1.6gig). The firewire soundcard has been pretty good.....but the latency I've been getting has been unbelievable (FAST!!).
I'm a programmer and softsynths are really important to my work.
Andyway, being a programmer I have been lured by the dual core carrot and decided to get a dell inspiron 6400....which is a FARKING FANTASTIC notebook...aside from the fact that the firewire chip does not work reliably with the audiophile.....


Anyway....here are my options

Dell has been awesome about this and they've agreed to refund my notebook.
However if I do this...I still have to get a replacement and the only thing I can get for the same cash is a compaq v3000 with an AMD x2 chip in which is means it will be about %25 slower than the core2 dell. (It will still rock tho)

Option 2 is I keep the dell and get a fast track pro (Gotta stay M-audio cause I need tools for compatability). I'd do this..but I'm just not sure If the latency on this card will be low enough for soft synths. I think it's USB 1.1 .

So er...anyone got any pointers?
Anyone got a fast track pro? How's the latency?
Anyone manage to get a M-audio firewire card working with an inspiron 6400??

HELP!! Gotta get this sorted pronto before the next gig comes in.

Thanks guys.
H.