USB 2.0 Vrs Fire-Wire Audio Interface with a laptop?

[heady dude]

Im trying to get my first recording rig together, total noob.
I just bought a laptop(basic Sony Vaio) that has USB 2.0 and fire wire ports. I was wondering which audio interface would be the better option for me. I know fire-wire is supposed to be much faster, but Ive also heard that more often than not the interface's usually are not compatible with laptops; unless you have the Texas Instrument chip, and as far as I know, I do not.
So that is kinda of swaying me twords going with USB. What are the major differences between the two other than speed, and do you think it would be a bad move to take a chance on a fire-wire interface?

Thanks

[JMulhollan]

I've never run anything firewire on a PC but I run my Firewire FP10 perfectly fine on my Macbook Pro. If your just starting out, you can get a USB interface and see how you like it. If you get any latency issuses with it and stuff plays back with a bothering delay while recording, you might want to look into seeing if your laptop is compatible with a Firewire interface.

I don't know TOO much about recording with a PC but I know it works and know a good amount of studios that use PCs

Good Luck