I sometimes wonder whether the people who give advice have actually tried it! I can't speak for the P2, but my laptop with a P3-derived Pentium mobile is actually better for the internet than this desktop with a P4-equivalent AMD. As for sse2, I don't have it and the only consequence is that I can't use Flash later than version 10.

Right DavidMcCann.
Pentium II is still very much serviceable today. I didn't need install a DE to make my Pentium II efficiently run as --
1. Printer server
2. Firewall
3. Home network light file server
I installed Absolute Linux v.12.2 and I was comfortably doing research in the web, writing documents, and most of all hacking scripts.

By the way, my familiarity with PII owes to the fact that I was already computing from time MS-DOS v. 1.0 and was happy hacking with Windows 1.11 neighborhood dial-up networks. Now I am running high-end laptops and desktops, at least to my small head, hardware doesn't matter much..... it is the man behind the keyboard

m.m.

I have a couple of old machines with Pentium and P-II that run freeDos and Win98 just fine if you want local DOS or early Win games or programs. Not much more than that.

It really depend on what you want it to do. Many desktop things we run today are not going to run well (perhaps at all) on that processor. That does not mean you cannot DO things, you just have to be selective and adjust your expectations.

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