Alright first I need to know what version of linux I should get I have a Intel Pentium 2 with 32 mb RAM and only a 4-5 GB of hard drive I just want it to work nothing fancy but play music and write papers not even hooking it up to the internet

personally i like slackware 10.2

no offence but i'm guessing your a linux newb, and slack has a very basic and easy installation to it. it has KDE and has some nice word proccessing or Office programs

your computer isn't pimping so when you install it try to turn down some of the extra fancy effects and shit, but what you want it to look like is totally up to you.

KDE with only 32 MB of RAM = not very good idea. Try to find some RAM sticks to put into that box. Or use some lightweight window manager. I'd try Vectorlinux. It's based on Slackware and comes with Fluxbox.

Slackware with Fluxbox is about as light as you're going to get.

I'd seriously consider adding some RAM to it.

you think even the colesterall free kde version would be too much for 32mb of ram?

Yep, probably so. It would run but still make for a pretty slow system.

yep, you can forget about gnome or kde.
Usually I would suggest xubuntu, but I think even xubuntu would have to struggle. Try to get more ram, as you will probably get it for free. (I gave away two complete 500mhz pc's this year) - People are throwing away much better systems, so you might get something for a dollar on ebay.

I can't second things like DSL or Vector linux. If you take a well supported distribution like suse, ubuntu, debian and so on, and take windowmaker, fluxbox or the like as a window manager you will get about the same performance.

If you try (x)ubuntu, make shure you get the alternative install disk!
Suse will let you choose the window manager during insallation.