Well, I have decided to take the plunge and make my first Linux desktop. I have a Pentium III machine with a 40GB HDD and 64 Megs RAM (no more room for RAM chips).

I am downloading Slackware distro, however, I am not 100% sure that this is the least hardware hungry distro. Any pointers \ opinions are welcome.

After installing, I would like to have a BT (Bit Torrent) application and not really sure which one would be the best, considering the limited hardware resources. I really hope the community will be able to suggest a Bit Torrent client that will minimize hardware demands.

Thanks!!

My two cent ubuntu advocacy:
Try xubuntu. It's a tier one supported linux app designed for lightweight/old machines.