MacBook Pro :: How Useful Are The 17" First Gen MBPs?

So I was informed by my uncle that he's retiring his first generation Core Duo 2.16GHz 17" MBP and was asking if I wanted it or not. He babied the system so it's nearly like new. Never took it outside, not even sure about the battery but that's not really a concern.

I want some owners of that laptop for some input to see how "useful" it is these days or should I refuse the offer?

If I were to take the system, it would most likely become by primary machine, basically what I use my MBA for right now. I understand the ram would be limited at 2GB, which is perfectly fine with me. The real advantage would be the hard drive, I can technically store a 1TB 5400RPM drive in there (which I would love to have... my 128GB is pretty limiting these days and carrying a 500GB external around everywhere is bit tiring too).

I look around for specs and so far I see that the 2.16GHz Core Duo and the current 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo in my MBA is more or less the same performance wise.

I guess what I'm really asking is, how well will this system put up for the next year or two. Pretty much, this will replace my MBA as a mobile workhouse. I originally planned on keeping this MBA for another 2 years (8 months right now) then replace to something new. But I'm becoming a bit limited on the disk space here and this seems like an upgrade to me.