I wouldn't bother with touch-screen! Sounds like that guy is just trying to get you to buy something more expensive than necessary. Since you just wanna go on the 'net, Skype, 'n stuff.

Looking through some laptops on Amazon, now, to get an idea of the sort of thing you might like.

I have only got personal experience with ASUS, Medion, and Acer laptops. ASUS seem to really care about quality, but I've been told their laptops are questionable, although I've yet to actually see that for myself. The last ASUS laptop I saw, was awesome, but that's just one of a bazillion out there.

It occurs to me that you might well be better off just fixing your Dell laptop. 9 years is old, very old, especially in computer world, but it might still be sufficient, just, ... broken down, on the software-side. Have you defragmented its hard disk drive(s), cleared any junk cache, tweaked any system settings, or perhaps considered a small cheap RAM upgrade? These are things I'd love to do if I could get my hands on that laptop. xD I've got a real thing for tweaking and generally sorting out machines. Ah well. What laptop do you actually have? Could you possible give me a model number and brand? Also, what operating system do you use on it? Windows 7? Windows XP? 'o.O

EDIT: Eek, these modern laptops are certainly quite expensive, or maybe it just looks like it because I'm looking on the US Amazon, with all those bucks, dollars, and bills. I see a lot of netbooks on Amazon, that are titled as laptops. ¬_¬ That's like selling a bike and calling it a car. FALSE ADVERTISING. xD

TBH, it seems that the only sort of modern laptop you will easily get, brand new, is gonna have specs you probably won't remotely need, but, regardless, it looks like it's gonna cost you £300+, or, ... ähm, ... $450+, if my conversion is anywhere near close. Personally, I'd be looking for a second-hand one - save yourself some monies! xD That said, the bonus with a new one, is the guarantee (so they say) that it works 'n all that. I went through this laptop fiasco a while back, before I bought my netbook. xD I looked through loads of netbooks, laptops, and tablets, for months on end; never quite deciding what I was gonna do. xD Then one day, spontaneity kicked in, and I just grabbed a nice looking Acer netbook.

So, what's your budget? How much an issue is money?

ANOTHER EDIT: Looks like I had dollars pegged to be worth a lot more than I thought. As I understand it, if you want a brand new, decent, modern laptop, you're looking at £300-400, and that's $476-635 holy crap, that looks like a lot. O.O xD

Amazon.com: ASUS A550CA-EB51 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dark Gray): Computers & Accessories
^ That looked so awesome; great specs, sleek design, ASUS, but then I saw that review - consider my positive impression shot. >.< I'm really seeing that ASUS may well rock the GPU world, but they seem to suck at laptops.

What size of a screen are you after? Generally speaking, the size of the screen, will dictate the size of the laptop. I'm guessing you're gonna be after 15.6" or 17"; the latter often being the more expensive, as well as it sacrificing some portability.

I'll check out some Lenovo laptops, as they do seem pretty nifty...

Amazon.com: Lenovo Ideapad Z575 12992DU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Gun Metal Grey): Computers & Accessories
^ If you can get a good deal on this model, it looks like you'd be a very happy camper! That laptop has very much impressed me, and if I needed one, I'd probably get it! Seems to have great reviews. The specs are fantastic. It'd do what you need it to, and a lot more, including some games.

I really like the cosmetic style of these Lenovo laptops.