There are a couple ebay auction for 256MB memory modules you're looking for. Under $10 shipped. The 512MB versions look to be about $20 shipped. I know it's not free, but is pretty cheap.
Are we talking standard DDR1 or 2? There's a differences between them even though their both 200pin. And what laptop model is this going into? The bios may or not even recognize 1gig memory.