I just finished installing Mandrakelinux 10.1 on a bit of older hardware I have, and every thing seems fine, but when it boots, and xorg launches, the only software I have access to is the clock... quite frustratting. Any idea what went wrong? or might it be a limitation of my (7 year) old hardware?

How old is your hardware? Mandriva uses a i686 (or maybe 586) kernel so processors older than (and maybe including) the pentium I won't work.
If that is the problem, consider a distribution that works well with older hardware, like Debian, because that is the only kernel for Mandriva (maybe except PPC and 64-bit)

Well, I have it up and running now. It is a Pentium II 400MHz. I was originally using the "mini-install" CD, and that, apparently, wasn't enough. I since used the first two of the three full install ISOs, and everything is working fine.

....Well, there is this annoying thing that it won't stay connected to my network. If nothing happens for about 5 minutes, I have to reconfigure the internet connection for it to respond to the network at all... I have it hooked into my Belkin Cable/DSL wireless router in one of the four available RJ-12 ports, so it's not a wireless issue. This is what's got me stumped for now...