What distro should I try for an old (6 yr) computer
 

The computer was bought in 2000, a friend gave it to me because I fixed her laptop.

I was wondering what old linux O.S distro can I put in there.

The computer has the following specs:
64 MB RAM
AMD Duron something processor (700 MHZ)
NVidia 16 MB video card, it's older than the Geforce MX series, Can't remember.
80 Gigs of hard drive space

I tried Ubuntu but it won't even go into live cd. I tried Fedora Core 2 but it says that minimum 128 MB of RAM for desktop. I was checking out Damn Small Linux but I am undecided.

I want to use the computer like a storage, where I can download my torrent files and put it there so that windows and linux can read those files (I think I need a FAT32 so that both O.S. can read the files, correct me if I am wrong). Just to download files, and use Azureus or any other bittorrent client.

Id suggest the coming Vector 5.8 - based on Slack :)

vectorlinux.com

Almost any distro will work, but you'll probably have to use a lightweight window manager. Each installer is a little different as to how you select which packages to install. But basically you want to disable Gnome/KDE at install and use XFCE, windowmaker, icewm, etc. instead. If you want to try Ubuntu, download and use Xubuntu (uses XFCE instead of Gnome/KDE). Or buy more RAM.

Now if you don't need a gui, I'd say install Debian from a netinstall CD. You'll get a text only prompt. Here's a good site on how to setup a lot of things from the command line. Then if you want a desktop, you can always aptitude install x-window-system icewm synaptic as root and get yourself a pretty gui.

You definitely don't need a FAT32 partition for network sharing, only if Windows and Linux on are on the same machine. Over a network, all the files get converted to bits and bytes for sending and decoded by the OS. You just need to setup Samba.

Try Slax Popcorn if you like fiddling about a bit, and learning much at the same time. It may take a little time to get all the modules right, but the result is low memory usage. And it can be copied / used from a FAT32 partition.

I tried with Vector Linux and it won't start the internet browser (I tried Opera and some other lightweight browser that was there).

The installation program it's very difficult.

In your situation, I would also try Xubuntu--and make it the "Alternate Install CD." The others require more RAM.

I used an old version of Slackware on an i386 box with minimal memory. You might want to give 10.2 a try.

Slackware 11.0 should work fine, maybe use XFCE4 as the desktop instead of KDE or Gnome

Try Zenwalk.

Robert

I agree - I just finished installing Slack 11 on an old laptop - 150MHz Compaq w/ 96MB system RAM, 1MB video RAM. I'm running Fluxbox instead of XFCE4, but XFCE also runs acceptably. I can run Firefox 2.0 with no problems (other than it's not exactly "quick" ;) ) For the OP - If at all possible, try to get additional RAM.