They should be able to handle those tasks just fine. =]
Perfect

do you know which one has more range? (wifi)
Do you also want it to use for things such as note-taking / document writing (if you go to classes) etc? If so, is the keyboard going to be an issue for you as they are small..
I personally had an Asus EEEPC and thought it was great because it was so portable and small (until a can of coke exploded in my backpack and destroyed it's 8GB SSD). The one I had was pre-installed with Windows XP but I actually removed it and installed Windows 7 Home onto it (even though it only left me with 3.5gb of hdd space on the solid state drive, it ran so much faster on the netbook than XP did!).
Battery life is going to be an issue on all brands because they are so portable. They are generally only a 3cell or 4cell battery so 2-3 hours is going to be about the most you'll get out of it, less if you have all the wireless features turned on + set on it's highest settings for performance/graphics. Overall though these things are going to do what you want them to do.
I would really investigate your other options. Look at buying something refurbished rather than "used". Usually refurbished means it was 'damaged' or 'didnt work properly' when it was removed from the box so was exchanged for the client. They are fixed up properly, then repackaged, but because they have been opened by a customer, they can no longer be classified as 'new' and are then classified as 'refurbished', even though they've never really been used. Keep clear of ones that say 'rebuilt' instead of refurbished though.
With a "used" laptop, you have no idea what they have done to it. Have they dropped it a few times (or a lot of times)? Is there any damage to it? Do all the keys/functions work properly? Does it work 100% without issues?
Don't forget with these mini books, you're also not going to have a CD Drive.
hmm..thanks for the heads up.
Small keyboards arent a problem for me as I have a Acer KAV60. The keyboard is suuuper tiny and i got used to it to the point where using reg keyboard is troublesome. I know more or less how to check comps for water/physical damage and wont hesitate to inspect it in front of the person selling it to me. (though they sent pics and the comp is a clean as a whistle)
Battery life...yeah thats tricky. For the Acer i have though, i purchased a bigger battery. Its...kind of clunky but it gave me about 6 to 7 hours of life. I think id do the same for the other ones.
would u happen to know which has more bat?
I guess the biggest prob for me is just not knowing which has more processing power. The hans has a bigger screen but...hp is a better known brand.