VGA carries video only. S-video is a higher standard as it splits the b&w signal & the colour signal and also it carries audio IIRC but I stand to be corrected on that. HDMI is the only way you'll output hd signals ex the laptop, so if it doesn't have it, you're out of luck.
The best standard of all for is RGB, but I never saw that on a lappy. It's usually only seen on high end av systems. Not really sure if hdmi supersedes it.