I've tested my laptop's (Windows Vista) specs on a site called System Requirements Lab, and I passed all but 2 of the specs for the Sims 3...the two being CPU and CPU speed.
My CPU is: "2 processors running - Genuine Intel(R) CPU T1600 @ 1.66GHz"
My CPU speed is 1.66GHz
http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq This link shows the specs for the sims 3. Although I don't meet the full specs, is there any chance it'll run on my laptop?
though looking a little further down that page it will also depend on your graphics card, if you have an Integrated graphics intel card you need a 1.8Ghz dual core CPU, so yours is not fast enough, if you have nvidia or ATI graphics you should be ok.
I've been a big fan of The Sims since the original game and have bought Sims 3........It is rubbish!
I am 100% unimpressed with it and am quite annoyed that I wasted �30.00