well i cant help much with US laptops but a dell Studio 15 comes in at pretty much just under $650 for this spec
SYSTEM COLOR Black Chainlink
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9
WARRANTY AND SERVICE Classic Protection: 1yr Ltd Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
HD DISPLAY 15.6” High Definition+ (900p) Bright LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
HARD DRIVE Speed: 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor
VIDEO CARD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support)
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0
KEYBOARD Standard Keyboard
there are more options available but since your budget is $650 its a tricky, the only thing I would change here is the processor but that would add another $125 on top for the 2.4Ghz upgrade, so its pretty much up to you.
maybe some of the other members might be able to help you more as im not too familiar with looking for laptops in the US.
best thing to do is check around best buy & newegg to see if they got any cut price deals going on..
use what ive quoted as a reference to what you basicly need, when looking for laptops try to avoid brands such as ACER, TOSHIBA & Gateway. Acer usually has very good laptops for a really low price for its spec but it wiill break within 6 months so their not the best to go to for reliability & build quality.