even the latest laptops with asio driver built in soundcards have crap latency. a dedicated usb or firewire soundcard will give better results.

they range from about £60 to £200 for a cheap one and in this range quality is about proportional to price.

My first one cost about £120 (Edirol UA-25) and was really good (except a bit of hiss on recording but I think that was interference from my laptop) If you get an M-audio one then in theory it will also work with some pro-tools software.

what laptop is it anyway?