I just "retired" my old 600 mhz P-III desktop, I was running windows 2000 professional on it, and had 384 mb ram, using SAWStudio and a Delta 1010 I was able to get 16 to 18 tracks going at 24/44.1, this was with 5 band eq on every track, plus around 12 compressors along with 2 delays (all on seperate tracks), as well as a reverb, a delay, and a chorus on 3 auxes.
If you can add more ram, and have a pcmcia slot, you should be able to get a firewire card for it and use something like a MOTU 828MKII or an 896HD.
I don't see why it wouldn't give you at least 14 or 16 tracks unless you can't add more ram.
If you have a more capable desktop right now, you could try installing your recording software onto the laptop, and transferring a song onto it by way of CD-R, and see just how many 16 bit tracks it'll run using the stock soundcard.