I personally havent found any computer I couldnt run Ubuntu on.
The one thing I will say, if you do install it, do NOT over write the
D:\Recovery
partition.

How much memory? According to Dell's web site, the base memory on that machine
was 64 MB, and the maximum was 512 MB. If it has 256 MB, use Lubuntu. With less,
try Puppy or Slitaz. Ubuntu might be OK with 512.

Hard drive size might also be an issue.

It's also going to be a little slow.

How much RAM does it have? I found one review online (dated 2001) stating that
the C600 comes with 128MB. That's not enough for Ubuntu. But yours might have
more.

Having said that: I run Ubuntu 11.04 on a Toshiba laptop that's almost as old.
It's a Pentium III (three!), clocked at 1.1GHz, with 512MB of RAM.
Responsiveness at the desktop level is satisfactory, and a bit better than the
Windows XP installation it had when I got it.

The Wi-Fi PCMCIA 802.11b card "just worked", without any tinkering on my part.
Interestingly, it supports WPA encryption under Ubuntu. (The Windows driver
would only support WEP.)

If you've got enough RAM on the C600, try Ubuntu. Otherwise, you might want to
try Puppy Linux.

I am back after a short absence. Sorry about this.

The Dell Latitude laptop is a P3, 850Mhz Processor, 256k Memory, 40Gb Harddrive.

I took the advice someone gave and tried puppy but it seemed so confusing that I
instaloled it on harddrive and it didn't work.

I'd say you are right on the lower limit for running Ubuntu on that
hardware - certainly the full Gnome/KDE ones. There are lighter ones
that have less demanding requirements but overall I'd suspect that
anything you put on will run poorly -
Not a system for a newbie to Ubuntu to start out with !!

Well, it will never be fast. But the RAM is what will determine whether it's at
all usable.

Lubuntu is promoted as running on machines with as little as 128 MB RAM. That's
probably your best bet with this laptop:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu

I tried Lubuntu 11.04 on my low-spec Toshiba (live CD only) and was pleased with
it.