I've got an Old PII 200Mhz PC with 64MB RAM and a 6GB Hard Disk. I put Windows 98SE on and have also installed Mandrake 9.1 because I had heard that if you're a total Linux Newbie (like me) that it's a good place to start. I've used it a few times but it's soooooo slow on this old PC.

Can anybody tell me if they know of a Linux distrobution that would work the best on this system but still have fairly up to date features?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

if it was my box and i wanted it to be quicker, i would put redhat 6.2. don't get high hopes about a lot of GUI. there is a Xserver but not much of one. there are security issues,, as with every release, but 6.2 is pretty solid.

Most new distros will need 128 mb ram to install, but there are several small distros that should work OK

# Linux Distribution links:
A Beginner's Guide to Choosing a Linux Distribution
Reasons to Choose or Not Choose Linux
LWN distro list
elinux Linux Distributions

Slackware 9.0 would run fine on it. I have Slackware 9.0 on a 486 and 32MB RAM (I don't have the GUI stuff installed, though).

Vector linux would be an ideal choice on that machine. There is a beta 4.0 version available now. Go to distrowatch.com and have a look.

How about Debian Woody? (It works!)

I would use Slackware 9 (like Lyle said) and run 'make menuconfig' to disable some of the more recent features that take advantage of newer technologies. You will also want to run 'chmod' on alot of RC files (/etc/rc.d.) This will help streamline the OS and keep your overhead low. A few months ago I was running RH8 on my Pentium 233 with KDE over X-windows and didn't have any issues.

look up Deli linux, I saw it earlier this week and it looks interesting...MADE for older machines

freebsd would run fine on it also

Those are not very bad specs. But they are not optimal for running a default install of a current distribution (with KDE or Gnome).
Carlywarly's suggestion of Vector Linux is good. Vector seems to be the best choice for a default install (including Xwindows) to a lower end PC. Yours is a notch better than this. Peanut Linux has slightly higher requirements (can't find the current on a quick check) but is similar in that is offers a small install with current programs using lower resources than the mainstream distributions.
Using something like the ICE desktop rather than KDE or Gnome (with your current Mandrake install) may be all that is needed to give you a good comprimise between speed and availability of programs.
Good Luck.

i have vector running on a 233mhz, 141 ram (that's actual, reconized is only 53), and a 2 gig hd. it's wonderful, if you want a gui on it there won't be a problem unless you use kde, or gnome. you could load a window manager, i.e., fluxbox, blackbox, waimea, icewm,...., instead of a windowing enviroment like kde or gnome. this would help you out with the speed of the graphics and you would still be able to use kde and gnome apps. for a beginner i would recommend ice, you dont' have as many hidden links and menus that the other's have.

cheers.

or try out the blackbox window manager it doesnt use up that much resources and looks nice enough to use (i use it all the time)

I have tried many flavors of linux on hand me down PC's,I installed CentOS 3.8 last month completely updated 2.4 kernel.It installed and runs flawlessly. CentOS 2 fully updated is also available for even older PC's. This is an updated copy of the red hat dist...
go here to check it out www.centos.org