Yeah, pretty much clear topic. I pre-ordered the game from Steam, still waiting for unlocking, and it's like I'm gonna cancel my pre-order and tell everyone to do it.

Now with official post http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1120441-please-read-before-posting/page__p__16475380&#entry16475380 making the "2.0 GHz Dual Core" minimum requirement, I'm about to go mad. I have exactly 2.0 GHz Dual Core. Since it is a laptop, it is not something upgradeable.

I want to know that I'm not on the edge.

Is it dual core required? FO3 would play on a 2.4 GHz single core Celeron.
(Multithreaded features come disabled by default it would seem ~perhaps they don't even work and are legacy flags. Why would it need a dual core?)

You are on the edge. Being minimum requirements, the assumption is that it will work, but will not be ideal (you will need to use low quality settings). Things below the minimum might still work (few games have a hard shut-off based on hardware) but what the minimum requirements are essentially saying is that nothing below them is guaranteed, as in there will be no support and you don't have a leg to stand on complaints-wise.

I can't see anything changed in requirements ... Those were published e.g http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=589&game=Fallout:%20New%20Vegas already Oct-08-2010

So I'm afraid that You might experience some bad graphic quality.

I'm gonna cancel my pre-order then.

I got a steady frame rate and great graphics at a resolution of 1680 by 1050 on FO3, off a 2.40GHZ dual core processor.

Hehe.

The minumum requirements were released before we slithered out of a pool covered in protoplasm, how come you've just noticed this now OP?

A 2.0 GHz Dual Core should be ok but since it is a laptop it is perhaps the video card that you should be concerned about. Can you tell us about your video card?

ATI Radeon HD 4570 with 512MB dedicated and 2GB with shared, since my machine is 4GB and runs 64-bit Windows 7.
I managed to play Fallout 3 on High Settings fluently. Very High details gave me 5-10 FPS, so I never tried it again. On Medium Settings, I never got slowing down, whereas High Setttings sometimes had decreased framerates

This is a laptop version of a video card which is on the weak side but still I think you worry too much. For as long as you stick to mediumish settings and don't crank up the resolution you should be able to run the game without any major problems.