Sorry, no time to read the comments, but I did read the main post. I also bought an HP laptop in january and upgraded my windows to vista. After my upgrade, my timer ran out of time so I reinstalled Vista again and it cleaned out my computer (which was GREAT by the way). If your HP is vista ready, then i highly suggest it. Gaming is slightly lower, depending on your hardware i presume, but when you begin to play a game, vista will automatically enter this performance mode and most of the cool effects will temporarily disable, allowing you a much better performance.
Well I just scrolled down and read something about upgrade vs. clean install. I highly advise a clean install. Save your files on an external hard drive or cds or something. Make a list of programs you have installed. I did an upgrade and about half of my programs were not working and i had to reinstall almost everything. Some of my files in my documents were corrupted or other minor setbacks.
By the way, when you sent in your request for the free upgrade, how long did it take them to reply. I faxed my papers about a month ago and still got no reply. I did it twice but they still seemed to have ignored my request. I called and called and called, Over 10 hours of being on hold, and they just kept putting me on hold or transferring me. I ended up using a Vista cd that came with a friend of mines laptop and then I used the stop timer thing. Please don't tell on me though... Just thought it might be helpful.
