IBM or Dell Latitude (and Latitude only) if you want a PC. Toshiba and Sony would be close up there also.
That being said I just bought a 15" Powerbook and I am eagerly waiting for it to get here (will let you know).
I was going to buy an IBM, which is my personal favorite when it comes to PC; however, the configuration I wanted was about $1000 more than a similar Powerbook, so I went w/ the Mac.
As for gaming, buy a SFF desktop or just make due on a higher end laptop. I find it funny that people buy laptop's for gaming when they could buy a less expensive laptop and have the money to buy a desktop also...