With 'starter' it should be a netbook we're talking about rather than a laptop, correct?
If so, whilst 1gb isn't ideal, 'starter' can only handle 2gb in total anyway. The first thing i'd do (after confirming that you're using a netbook) is establish how much it'd cost to add 1gb more ram in that netbook, if you find it slow* at any point.
(*slower than a netbook's likely to be anyway)