Help setting up a server. Options

[heyo-captain-jac...]

So I've got this old PC, so old it came with Windows 2000. It currently has XP service pack 1 installed, but can barely run it. Right now it runs on my unused Mandriva Live CD, and performance is still pretty crappy on that.

So I figured, why not turn it into a server? It's got a 90gb hard drive, and a half gig of RAM. The processor is where it lacks performance. It's a single 1.3 GHZ Pentium 4.

I would like to find out:
1) What's the best light operating system to run a server on? (Be more descriptive than "Linux")
2) How could I maximize performance?


Also, is there anything else I would need to know?

Edit:

User interface makes no difference, I've used nearly all of them. As long as I'm not running on some GUIless software like MS-DOS, I'm happy.

[Maccabee]

I dont think anyone can answer this cause you know more about computers than anyone here.
Windows 2000 is faster than xp.
I have tried almost every linux distro and the lightest is DSL and puppy linux.
Puppy linux uses kde dsl uses kde or flux.
But those are so minimal its hard installing new drivers and connecting to the internet unless its a wired connecton.
If you wanted to keep it somewhat usable you could install xubuntu or xfce over ubuntu cause xfce runs much faster and lighter than gnome.
on my other desktop im running plain ubuntu on a computer with a 2.3ghz procesor and 512mb ram and a 40gb hardrive.
I havent installed any extra programs and have diabled some likebluetoot and removed any images including desktop background to speed it up.
It runs fine and would run faster if i installed xfce over it like i have b4.
You can install it in the ummm...i forgot what its called its not add remove but something else.
or you can use command line.
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
also fluxbox is faster than most window managers but i havent tested it.
sudo apt-get install fluxbox