XFCE for low powered older machines
 

Would a distro such as Xubuntu run better on an older machine with only 1mb memory, or can i run something like Mint.

I assume 1mb is a typo and you actually meant 1gb? :)

What are the complete hardware specs (CPU, RAM, hard drive, video card, wireless chipset, etc)?

I used to run mind on my pc which has 1gb RAM and a core duo, and if worked fine. I changed ti slackware for other reasons. Just try it and see if it works.

Ubuntu is recommending 1GB as the bare minimum these days, so it may be a bit slow on your system.

Xubuntu will be better. The Xfce version of Mint is rolling release, so not as stable. SalineOS is also Debian-based, more stable than the others, and slightly smaller.

Otherwise you could use an LXDE distro. That's sometimes a bit lacking in configuration tools, but one version that isn't is WattOS, that's based on Ubuntu but better than Lubuntu (e.g. I could set subpixel smoothing from the control centre in WattOS, but had to edit a script to do it in Lubuntu).