Will the macbook (not pro) run Maya?

Hey guys,
I've been reading here for a while, and almost, ALMOST, bought my first apple last Christmas, but ultimately they were still powerbooks, and I knew something better (intel chips) was going to come out sooner or later. And when the macbooks came out I'd end up waiting at least 3 months to buy one to avoid new model problems. Anyway, I ended up buying an Alienware for 3D animation. The good thing about this machine is that it's dang fast, it renders unbelievably quick, it has plenty of ram, and lots of power. The down side is that it overheats itself way too frequently and I find myself sending it back to the factory for repairs every couple of months. (It's still got two years left on it's warranty, so I'm not paying for anything) Those repairs typically take about 3 weeks. Well anyway, the machine's acting up again, and I know I'm probably going to send it back soon.
I need to buy an alternate machine. Something that can run the software, but nothing too heavy-duty, because I have my workhorse already. I don't want to buy a macbook pro, because I don't want to spend 2300 bucks on the backup, and not to sound immature, but all my professors have powerbooks/macbook pros and I'd really like to maintain by youthfulness and distinguish myself from them. So I've been eyeing the black macbook. Just the barebone version. It's around 1200-1300 bucks after my student discount and it matches my Ipod. But the real question is, will it run maya? I went to the U bookstore, explained the situation to one of the salesmen, but he told me to buy a pro still, saying the regular macbooks will not run Maya... Personally I think that's a bunch of crap, and he just wants me to fork out an extra grand so he can collect more commission, but they again I'm no expert. I hope to buy a macbook in late november/early december so I can send in my current heap to get fixed before Christmas.
Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.

You are going to take quite a performance hit on the MacBook since it has integrated graphics. It will run but not nearly as fast as a MBP

Is there a place where I could find some benchmarks? I did a google search for "maya on macbook" but every time I'd get "maya on macbook" pro as a result. I imagine, in terms of animation, this would be reserved for Photoshop, After Effects, and Maya only for low-res animations. If it's like half as fast, I'm fine with that, but if it's 1/8 the speed, that would not be fun.

Maya is a professional level application. You are likely going to find more results pertaining to Maya's performance with regards to the professional level machines (MBP) instead of a consumer line (MacBook). Professional 3D rendering apps like Maya will benefit highly from the dedicated Video Card and increased VRAM of the MBP. Those machines were designed with the professional in mind. MacBooks were designed to cater to the everyday user.
In short, professional applications will almost always be better suited for professional level machines.

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