I have come across a few articles that talk about how Server 2008 is what Vista hoped to be. Here is an article that a Microsoft person wrote about it:
The Way I See It : Using Windows Server 2008 as a SUPER workstation OS
Also, this article talks about some performance testing:
Windows "Workstation" 2008 - Vista Done Right?
And if you want to run Hyper-V on your laptop, you may want to see this article about how to get the Wireless to be available to the VMs:
Using Hyper-V with a Wireless Network Adapter
or
Using Wireless with Hyper-V