I spent whole day trying to find any good distro for that board.
It has x86-compatible processor, but the catch is it not i686, as presumed by most modern linux distros (and Ubuntu Server). It only i586, and does not have PAE or cmov or cx8 instructions in CPU. Honestly, why I do need PAE for device with only 512mb ram? Or cmov which is unnecessary to operate?

(This board can successfully run win2k and xp btw)

Okay, searched for nopae distros but none of them work, and I do not want to install some ancient software without security updates. Also I do not want to mess with red-eye ones like Gentoo.

Solution comes from nowhere - on the one forum someone point out to Debian. I expected on that "i386" branch they expect (as anywhere) i686, BUT NO =)
FAQ says that any Pentium-class CPU will do, including VIA C3.
And, as I already know, it is actually i586, it may work.

I created boot flash with Universal USB Installer and it installs correctly. Now I wait to finish installer.
Okay maybe I bit too fast.
System installed but now it won't boot and falling into boot loop.
(even does not load anything)
Rescue mode working though.
Now at least I can debug further and maybe get it into working state.
But today I'm full of trying linux on that machine. Thanks for reading.


Okay, new day - new hope.
Next I tried to replace stock grub2 with something else.
I had luck with LILO - installed via custom expert install mode (yes I reinstalled all again but whatever)
Now it's booting but freeze when xserver starts. From where it come from? I remember clearly that I DO NOT check flag to install desktop.
Okay, reboot into recovery again and aptitude search '~i gnome' and remove anything with Gnome in package name or anything that has dependency for Gnome.
Finally booted to console, yay.

First thing I wanted to run PXE recovery server in my local network, but I think I'm done for now.

Welcome to the forum.