Most laptops can't even get their graphics upgraded, only really high end gaming laptops can do that. Since he can't run a ShaderModel 2.0 game, I doubt he has one of those. You're going to need a new laptop to play any modern game. The graphics on your laptop don't support features necessary for modern games to run.
I would very much doubt its upgradable anyway. Take a look on the website for the chipset as you may be lucky and find that there is a firmware update that will add support for SM 2.0. Its an outside chance but worth checking.
Let me know what exactly you have if your not confident enough to check what is what and i will look it up for you.