Knowing more details about your old laptop can be helpful as we can ensure the new one is a massive upgrade where it matters.

Another thing that could be useful is buying a cheap laptop and upgrading it where it matters.

For example I had to buy a laptop for continuing education and the main things I wanted was a good keyboard for typing, and an IPS screen.

I found one with 4GB RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and WiFi 5 for $175 open box on Amazon.

For about $100 I remedied all those deficiencies with 16GB RAM ($40), a 512GB SSD ($40) and WiFi 6 ($20).

Now I have a surprisingly decent laptop for basic use for under $300.

In your situation, fast high endurance SSDs and 32GB RAM might be desirable. You don't necessarily need the strongest graphics card.

If you find a $650 laptop with the strongest CPU, $150 in upgrades could help you bring everything else up to spec.

I would probably lean towards a 12th gen - H class i5/i7, or a Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPU for DDR4 support.

A few random examples this - i5-12450H & Nvidia 1650: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B74M8YB9

i5-12500H and Nvidia 3050: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X8KFRB4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V8D8VVY

Ryzen 5725U (thinner and much better battery life): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXJ8DDQ

5600H: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9RXMHZZ

Performance comparison: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/4727vs4750vs4788vs4274/Intel-i5-12450H-vs-Intel-i5-12500H-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-5825U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-5600H

Note that the U CPU is 15 watts, the H CPUs are 45 watts.

$70 gets you 32GB DDR4: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T17RQ87