You make it sound like that's so much easier, when for hardware that age... it will probably be harder, in all honesty.
By all means, give it a shot. If you can get what you need that way, it should be fine.
really? with the original install discs it shouldn't be too bad- it's a laptop, so it's doubtful any hardware was added. the worst part will probably be installing/downloading the windows service packs