A better solution is to get yourself a mixer. Something simple such as Behringer UB502 - they cost about £30 (do a google for a local DJ shop or see if Maplins have any), run this between the laptop & the amp & this should clean up the sound & give you more control. run the amp on full & control the volume from the mixing desk running the master output on half power & setting the gain so the lights on the mixer just go into the red. Ideally you want an external USB soundcard on your laptop, but i've done charity gigs in large halls off a laptop into one of these mixers & out into a 6000w system as background music for a band.
Also another point if playing MP3's through an amplified system make sure the MP3's are at least 192kpbs - the higher the better, running MP3's at 128kbps sounds more compressed - it's fine on a ipod through headphones & will sound perfectly OK, but on a larger, loud system it will sound lousy when amplified!
Another solution is to do away with the laptop.. Go to tesco, buy one of the £15 DVD players - so long as it plays MP3's.. use it like a regular CD player. - DVD players have a volume control usually on the remote, so you can also use it with/without a mixer. Burn a CD of MP3's in data mode with your MP3's & away you go, again i've done this in the past on large sound systems & it works well, OK it's not 100% quality but so long as the MP3's are of a good quality who's going to know?
You could also get a program such as Mixmeister & create a medley with no gaps for the CD or run it straight from the laptop.
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