Im running Ubuntu 8.04 on a 8 year old Dell laptop. 900??? cpu, I think
I uped the ram to 512 (I forget) and it works fine. I use it to lay in
bed and type and read on.

try Puppy 4.0 works fine........

Gutsy Gibbon works great on my old piece of junk. None of the others
will even load onto it.

And that's exactly why I like Ubuntu: it seems to run on anything
I try, which is why I have copies of Ubuntu's Live CD everywhere.

Hmm, I have an old 100MHz P2 in my garage; I might try that one later
this weekend.

I have Ubuntu on the slowest AMD Duron with just 215mb RAM and it runs
just fine.

You have till next April to find a replacement. I suggest that you give Intrepid
a try and see if it works for you.

I have a 10 year old Dell 900 MHz with 256 KB memory that runs Hardy with no
problems (if a bit slowly). Try Xubuntu if none of the standard Ubuntu
releases work for you - it is designed for old and slow machines.

I can attest to that, I have one of those old Dells that has a 800 Mhz
processor and 768 Mb memory. I use it more for downloading than
anything, but it is manageable. It is a good starter machine while you
build a power hourse.