The original Disciples: Sacred Lands was released in 1999. So, the series is about 10 years old. Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy was released in 2002, Rise of the Elves after that. Visually, the "2" series has aged well. The graphics are still excellent. But there may be better to come. Disciples 3: Renaissance should be out sometime this year with updated graphics and innovations to game play. And the original Disciples 2 will be out for the Nintendo DS, TBA. So it is a living series, it is not just an old dead game. Threads say it does run well on Netbooks like the Samsung NC-10.
The learning curve can be a bit steep, the difficulty moderate. Combats can be tough. Make thieves, plenty of them, poison the opposing the party, then unleash a spell or two. Even after that the combat can still be tough. Easy mode is highly recommended for beginners.
You will want to scan over the .pdf manual and reference it from time to time in the beginning. You can find the cheats online via a search engine if you really get stuck. The game play may seem very slow at first, but once the user interface becomes second nature, then having the next turn command on the spacebar makes sense.
Disciples 2 is not for everyone. Read reviews online, watch game play videos.