End result was I abandoned Ubuntu for the server install. At least for
now. More:

After several attempts to install U 7.04, I wrote the first question
above. On finding what looked very much like the same problem, I tried
the work-arounds. I couldn't do the kernel switch which was seemed to
be the preferred solution, as the machine wasn't on the internet, and
I'm too ignorant to know how to apt the cd drive when I'm having a
hard time getting a prompt for the command line. So I tried the
alternate cd. It seemed to install ok, and actually booted, unlike the
standard cd. Unfortunately, the install blew the detection on my
mouse, my keyboard, and my video - so I had a corrupted, but visible,
display, and no way to interact with it. Forget that. I think it would
work - eventually. But I don't want to spend the time.

I went back to distrowatch, and looked around. Picked VectorLinux as a
likely candidate. Download, install. Installed 3 times to get the
partitioning and packages in a mix that would boot. But it was a
simple 3 times - not really a big deal. Remember, I'm still a linux
newby, and VectorLinux isn't far from the text based install - iow,
for experienced users only. Now it is up and running, but I don't have
my mouse, and I don't have apache or MySQL, etc installed.

This hardware is not really that old. MB is probably ASUS, chip is AMD
K6 233 mhz, RAM is 266 Mb, hdd is 20 Gig. Mouse is serial, but mb had
P2 and USB ports. It was an advanced mb for it's day - USB was just
becoming available in the market. I have never connected either of
those ports. Maybe I should dig in my old hardware to see if I have
the adapters still. You can't get a serial mouse any more! Keyboard
detects just fine - it is the old IBM standard big plug variety.

Objective is to run as local database server so I can practice db mgmt
and use a remote db with ARCGIS and Primavera P3e/c. I don't need a
fast hdd connex, I need cheap and fast experience/learning curve.