The advice to go to Dpreview.com is good advice. I have a lot of digital cam experience and have done a lot of research. I have the same requirements as you as I find that unless it's very very small, I won't have it with me. Much like a carry gun.
I had a nikon coolpix 2100 and really liked it but it was on the slightly larger size. It was a good camera but it's photos are all slightly blue cast and the images were noisy.
I just recently tried to replace it. I originally got the Pentax OptioS5i. I took it to Cancun on vacation and it took great pictures. It had a good battery life and was very small. After I got back from the trip the focusing mechanism went weird and I took it back. They were out of them so I decided to get a Panasonic with the Leica lens, it was called a LUMIX.
That camera SUCKED ASS. I am a HUGE panasonic fan and I try to get panasonic stuff wherever I can because I find that it's built to a very high quality standard. Well it was build to a high standard and the pictures were AWESOME but it had only an 80 shot battery?!?!. That's like having an AR with a 5 shot fixed magazine. It was stupid. So i took it back after a few days and started doing some research.
I friend recommended the casio eXilim 7.2MP and i looked into it. It good good reviews so I went and looked at it and wound up buying it.
I absolutely love this camera. It's clear and sharp and the most important thing, it has a very very low shutter lag time. All digital cameras have a fairly long lag time and this one is very low. it also has a HUGE battery capacity. I can literally take 400+ shots with this camera. I am using it now and haven't charged it in two-three weeks and it's still "Green" on the battery indicator. It's huge. I love this cause this means I can go on a week long work trip and not even bring the charger.
This camera also has several really really cool modes like past video. This is a mode that shoots video but is always buffering 5 seconds of video. What this means is that when I push "record" it starts the recording 5 seconds in the past. I use this a lot when at my kids ball games, I keep it pointed at them, and then wait till they hit. If they don't hit the ball I never push the button. If they do hit it, I push the button and the hit gets recorded even though I pushed it after the hit actually happened.
I paired this with a 2GB SD card and can take over an hour of video and 800 some shots at normal quality and 350 plus at 7.2mp high quality. The camera is tiny and when in my pocket or in it's case, you won't notice it at all, it's very very small. The optical zoom is only 3x and like someone else said, you optimally want as high as you can get on optical zoom. You can compensate with this by getting as high of megapixels as you can so you can crop to your desired frame. At 7.2MP I can take very distant stuff and still crop zoom in on it.
I highly recommend the casio for all the above reasons.
The other camera I've used extensively is the Canon digital elph and I think you would be also very very happy with one of those. They have probably the best image quality out of the box and lots of modes. They don't have as many as the casio but it has everything you'd need. What impressed me in the digital elph is the case. It feels very solid and well built. If there is anything wrong with the casio it's that it feels slightly "flexy". When the lens shuts, the lcd distorts a little and when you squeeze the camera you can feel the large flat sides deflect a little bit.
Do your research and feel each of them and get the one you like the best but take a close look at the casio exilim, it's awesome.
EDITED to ADD: I just saw your post and that's my camera and you will love it if you get it. Get a 2GB SD card from Dell when they are on sale and a good small case and you are set.