Hrm, Playing on a laptop is a bit dodgy, Some don't work that well playing it and might need a lot of drivers to play it.
The requirements are:
Minimum:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP
CPU: Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz or faster processor
Memory: 128 Mb RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce series graphics processing unit with 32 Mb or ATI Radeon 9000 series graphics card (AGP)
Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compatible soundcard
Hard Drive Space: 6 Gb free hard disk space
CD-Rom Speed: 4x CD-Rom Drive (required only at installation)
Internet Connection: 56kbps modem or better
Other: keyboard, mouse
Recommended:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 Processor
Memory: 256 Mb RAM
Graphics Card: NVidia GeForceFX series graphics processing unit (AGP) with 64 Mb Of VRAM
Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compatible soundcard
Hard Drive Space: 6 Gb free hard disk space
CD-Rom Speed: 32x CD-Rom drive or faster (required only at installation)
Internet Connection: Always-on Internet connection
Other: keyboard with numeric pad, mouse with scroll wheel
And if you're still not sure, there is a program to test your PC if it will work, it plays scenes from FFXI and gives you a score on how well it will work on your system.
http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/multimedia/download/bench/download.html
Here are the scores:
Note: The following scores are for low-resolution mode.
Cannot run - 999: "Too Weak" PC
Unfortunately, we assume that the specifications of your computer do not meet requirements to run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows. If you have this score even though your computer meets the minimum system requirements, please adjust the software resident on your PC.
If your computer does not meet the minimum system requirements, please consider upgrading your machine.
1000 to 1499: "Easy Prey" PC
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows.
However, your frame rate may drop when in a party with lots of effects or in crowded cities.
You should set the game settings (such as resolution and texture) as low as possible.
In addition, if these symptoms bother you, you may consider upgrading your computer (such as increasing the amount of memory or upgrading your graphics card, etc).
1500 to 1999: "Decent Challenge" PC
We assume that your computer can easily run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows with the default settings. If the frame rate bothers you when you run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows, you may change the game settings (resolution or texture settings, etc) or adjust the display of weather effects.
2000 to 2499: "Even Match" PC
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows enjoyably with the default settings. You should be able to play easily with weather effects on.
2500 to 2999: "Tough" PC
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows enjoyably with the default settings. If your video card exceeds the recommended system requirements, we recommend that you increase the resolution of FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows. FINAL FANTASY XI might run just as smoothly as in low resolution mode.
3000 to 3999: "Very tough" PC
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows enjoyably with the default settings. If your video card exceeds the recommended system requirements, it may be possible to run "FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows" easily even in high resolution mode.
4000 or above: "Incredibly tough" PC
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows incredibly well with the default settings. If your video card exceeds the recommended system requirements, it may be possible to run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows easily even in high resolution mode or with bump mapping enabled.
7000 or above: "Impossible to gauge"
We assume that your computer can run FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows excellently with the default settings. If your video card exceeds the recommended system requirements, we recommend that you try out various configuration settings of FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows.
Hope this helps! Hope you can play this game :)